BNP Paribas Open: Lloyd Harris vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 10/09/21 Tennis Prediction

Will the clay court loving and agile, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat the in form and big serving, Lloyd Harris in the second round here at the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday, October 9th, 2021.

Will we see the form we know Alejandro can play with as we have seen a lot throughout 2020 and 2021, or will Lloyd Harris show us that on hard courts he has the advantage over a clay court lover, especially after his superb summer on the ATP Tour?

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is a great player on his day, more often than not making it far in every ATP 250 tournament he participates in. However, his game is much more suited to clay as he does not have one specific aspect to his game which allows him to dominate, but rather he waits in long rallies for his opponents to make mistakes. On hard courts this is harder to do as the game is more winner focused, and this showed in his opening round match against Steve Johnson where he had to fight through it in 3 tight sets.

Lloyd Harris will be looking forward to coming out here in the second round with a Bye, demonstrating that the hard work and strong performances that he has put on this year on hard courts is paying off. Lloys has beaten the likes of Dominic Thiem and Rafael Nadal in similar conditions this year, and he will know that he can definitely go far here in Indian Wells through his amazing serve and big forehand when the ball comes back short.

This is the first time these two youngsters meet each other, and although up until last year, Alejandro was higher ranked, in 2021, Lloyd Harris has shown much more resolve and better performances overall. If this was a match on clay, I would perhaps expect Alejandro to have the upper hand. However, because we are on hard courts, and the fact that Alejandro does not have a huge asset in his arsenal in these conditions, I see the South African making his way to the third round here in Indian Wells.