The 2025 ATP Adelaide International continues on Wednesday, January 8 with its second round matches with Tommy Paul and Brandon Nakashima in action. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Adelaide.
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Tommy Paul v Manuel Guinard Preview
Head-to-Head: Paul and Guinard have never faced off before this.
A semifinalist in this tournament in 2020 and a two-time quarterfinalist since then including last year, Paul will kick-start his 2025 season campaign with a second round match against the 261st-ranked Manuel Guinard.
It should be a straightforward encounter for the American Paul, who is coming off his best ever season in his tennis career.
After winning in Dallas early in 2024, Paul had grabbed a title at Queen’s before ending the season on the high of a Stockholm Open win. All of this helped him climb up to 12th on the ATP Rankings and another solid performance in the early part of the season here will help him break into the top 10.
Up against him is a lucky loser who was beaten in the second qualifying round here by Yannick Hanfmann. Guinard still made the main draw where he stunned Roman Safiullin in a hard-fought three-setter but that was down to his opponent’s poor play.
Paul shouldn’t have any such problems.
Paul v Guinard prediction: Paul to win in straight sets: 1/3
Brandon Nakashima v Rinky Hijikata Preview
Head-to-Head: There have been two previous matches played between these two players, both of which were won by Nakashima. Both came in 2024, in Hangzhou and Houston.
After having kick-started the season in Hong Kong with a poor showing against Lorenzo Sonego – he lost in straight sets there – Nakashima looked to be in some trouble in his opener here too.
The American looked like he was heading to a win for starters but Yannick Hanfmann came back strongly to level the match at a set apiece. An early break of serve in the third set would have come as a huge relief for Nakashima who then turned on the screws with a second break with Hanfmann serving at 3-5.
Nakashima now faces Rinky Hijikata, an opponent whom he defeated twice just last year.
Having qualified for the main draw of this competition despite losing to Adam Walton in the second qualifying round, Hijikata surprised a few with his showing in his opener against David Goffin.
It looked like a undercooked Goffin on court but Hijikata took full toll as he routed the Belgian 6-1, 6-2 in an hour and 13 minutes. Hijikata lost his serve once in the process but got the better of his opponent’s serve on five occasions to set up a second round meeting with Nakashima.
Nakashima can be expected to ease to a win here.
Nakashima v Hijikata prediction: Nakashima to win in straight sets: 10/11
Felix Auger-Aliassime v Arthur Cazaux Preview
Head-to-Head: These two had faced off in Montpellier last season and Auger-Aliassime had squeaked past Cazaux in a final set tie-breaker.
Auger-Aliassime did not have a great start to the season when he went down in a shocking manner to Borna Coric in his first match of the United Cup.
Having won the first set 6-0, he was taken apart in the next two.
That loss played its part in Canada’s inability to proceed to the next round but Auger-Aliassime did come back strongly in his second singles match as he shocked Taylor Fritz despite starting out a 21/10 underdog in that encounter.
In that match, it was Auger-Aliassime’s turn to come back from being a set down.
Now with an opening round bye here, Auger-Aliassime would like to get a couple of wins under his belt as he looks to head into the Australian Open with some more fine-tuning under his belt.
He takes on the world number 80, Arthur Cazaux who eased past Adam Walton in his opener. After losing his first round match at Brisbane International, Cazaux registered a 7-5, 6-1 win over Walton in a match lasting an hour and 43 minutes.
Cazaux will now need to the up the ante even further while taking on Auger-Aliassime but he does have a solid record in hardcourt competitions on the Challenger circuit, having won all three of his titles on it.
We can expect Cazaux to put up a bit of a fight here.
Auger-Aliassime v Cazaux prediction: Over 20.5 games in the match: 5/6
Marcos Giron v Denis Shapovalov Preview
Head-to-Head: Their only previous meeting came in Houston last year and Giron had won that clay court match in straight sets.
Marcos Giron won his maiden ATP title last year in Newport, was a finalist at Dallas and a semifinalist at Delray Beach and Antwerp but other than that had a huge struggle on his hands.
There were multiple opening round losses and it gave him one of the most inconsistent seasons of his career.
As a result, he settled in at a season ending ranking of 45th after having jumped up to 37th at one point and it would be his hope and ambition to begin his ascent again.
In the opener here, Giron defied the19/20 odds to get past Aleksandar Vukic in the opening round and should have it easier against the struggling Denis Shapovalov.
Shapovalov was dumped out in Hong Kong last week by Kei Nishikori and while he came back to defeat Zhizhen Zhang here in the first round, his record reeks of even more inconsistencies than Giron.
Backing the American to clinch a straight-set win here.
Marcos Giron v Denis Shapovalov prediction: Giron to win in straight sets: 2/1
