Erste Open: Gael Monfils vs. Lorenzo Musetti 10/27/21 Tennis Prediction

Seventh seeded Gael Monfils will play Lorenzo Musetti in the First Round of the 2021 Erste Open. The match will be played on Wednesday October 27th, 2021 at 9:30am EST.

Veteran French star Gael Monfils will meet the young Italian talent Lorenzo Musetti in the First Round of the Erste Open in Vienna. Monfils has finally found form after a miserable few seasons, and is a man on a mission to finish his season in strong fashion. Can the very talented but inconsistent Italian cause the big upset here?

Gael Monfils is a former top five player who currently finds himself at number nineteen in the world rankings. The Frenchman is one of the most popular players on the ATP Tour and is a human highlight reel. He recently reached the Semi-Finals in Metz, and lost to Musetti’s countryman Jannik Sinner in the Final of the Sofia Open. With Monfils it is very simple. If he is confident and enjoying his tennis, he will perform extremely well and be difficult to beat. This seems to be the case here, and Monfils is the big favorite here, but shouldn’t underestimate his teenaged opponent who has caused some upsets in his short career.

Lorenzo Musetti burst onto the scene a few years ago with some massive upsets of much higher ranked players, but unfortunately hasn’t been able to build on that early success. Still highly successful and ranked in the top 70, once he is able to realize his potential there is some serious top 10 upside here. Since starting the year strongly he has fallen off since, most recently losing to Sinner in the Second Round last week in Antwerp. His dynamic baseline game can be dangerous on this surface, however he is coming up against a very experienced Gael Monfils who has multiple titles on this surface, and his work will be cut out for him here.

This will be a very exciting match with lots of flashy shot making. Both players are entertainers, and are extremely aggressive baseline players which makes for must-see tennis. Lorenzo Musetti is a fantastic young prospect but I don’t think that he has shown enough consistency recently to trouble the veteran Gael Monfils. The Frenchman should be able to control the match quite comfortably from the baseline and with his serve, and will win here, moving on to the Round of 16 here at the Erste Open.