ATP Marseille Open: Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Lucas Pouille 3/11/2021 Tennis Prediction

Second seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece faces unseeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille in the Round of 16 at the 2021 Marseille Open ATP event. The match is scheduled to be played on Thursday March 11th, 2021 at a time yet to be determined. 

Can the unfavored Pouille cause the shocking upset and advance to the Quarter-Finals for the first time this year? Or will the heavy favorite Tsitsipas cruise to victory?

Stefanos Tsitsipas is one of the most in-form players on the ATP Tour at the moment and is currently ranked a career-high #5 in the world rankings. After a strong ATP Cup where he went unbeaten, he has played at an extremely high level at the Australian Open and in Rotterdam. At the Australian Open, he defeated Rafael Nadal in a shocking upset in the Quarter-Finals, before losing to Daniil Medvedev in the Semis. In Rotterdam, he again reached the Semi-Finals before losing to Andrey Rublev. While he will be very happy at his performances so far, he will be highly motivated to win his first title of the year and will expect to win the title here in Marseille. His big serve and heavy groundstrokes will be very effective here in Marseille and he enters this match as the overwhelming favorite. 

Lucas Pouille is currently ranked #81 in the world , a far cry from his career-high of #10. He has been far from his best over the past few years and will be hoping that the 2021 Marseille Open will signal a return to form. However, he has not been handed a great draw, facing second seeded Tsitsipas in the Round of 16. He has had a poor start to the year, with a 1-2 record at Challenger Level and losing his only ATP Match at the Open Sud de France before this event. He had a relatively easy win over Serbian Alex Molcan in the opening round , 7-5, 6-3. He will know that it will be a huge step up in quality here and he will have to play amazing tennis to even have a chance. 

While Pouille is a solid player, he is not the top 10 force that he once was and Tsitsipas will take advantage of that. The Greek star has played outstanding tennis in 2021 and there are no signs of that slowing down. Expect a routine Stefanos Tsitsipas vitory in straight sets.