Alex Michelsen will come up against Colton Smith and Lorenzo Musetti faces Roman Safiullin in second action at the ATP Indian Wells Masters 2025 on Friday, March 7. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Indian Wells.
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Alex Michelsen v Colton Smith Preview
Head-to-Head: Michelsen and Smith have never faced off before this.
When Alex Michelsen takes to court for his second round match against Colton Smith, he would know that a win here will take him to where he’s never been – a third round appearance in a Masters 1000 event.
That’s a tad surprising actually with Michelsen having already made the third round at the Australian Open in 2024 and then going one step further in that tournament earlier this year.
Michelsen stunned Stefanos Tsitsipas and overcame Stefanos Tsitsipas on his way to the fourth round in Melbourne and while he hasn’t quite been able to match that form again, he has done well to reach the Delray Beach semis.
Smith is a surprise entrant in the second round with the 261st-ranked player having beaten Flavio Cobolli in his opener here.
He had earlier qualified for the event with wins over Fabio Fognini and Pavel Kotov and came back from being a set down to overcome Cobolli.
A title winner at the Cleveland Challenger competition before this, Smith has been rated highly by a few but will face a player who is two years younger but more experienced at this level.
Michelsen v Smith prediction: Michelsen to win: 2/5
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Lorenzo Musetti v Roman Safiullin Preview
Head-to-Head: They had faced off once in a Challenger tournament in 2019 where Safiullin won before facing off again in Chengdu 2023 and Miami 2024. Both shared that one apiece.
Lorenzo Musetti has featured in a mere three tournaments all season so far and a part of that could be related to his fitness.
Some of that issue was seen in Buenos Aires where Musetti had defeated Corentin Moutet to make the second round but withdrew from the competition after that because of a calf injury.
Before that appearance in Argentina, Musetti had featured in Hong Kong and at the Australian Open and won just three matches of the five he played.
With rustiness an obvious factor, it will be interesting to see how he goes about his business when he takes on Roman Safiullin in the second round.
Safiullin had himself come into the tournament on the back of some poor form but then stunned the local lad Reilly Opelka 7-5, 6-4 in the first round.
In a match lasting an hour 27 minutes, Safiullin saved three of the four break-points he faced, endured 12 aces but got the better of Opelka’s serve three times.
Can he now take advantage of Musetti’s fitness as well? Interestingly, he starts an 8/11 favourite here.
Musetti v Safiullin prediction: Safiullin to win: 8/11
