Felix Auger-Aliassime will meet Dusan Lajovic in the Second Round of the 2023 Madrid Masters. The match will be played on Saturday April 29th, 2023.
Felix Auger-Aliassime (FAA) is ranked 9th in the world and is the seventh seed here at the 2023 Madrid Masters. The Canadian has really stepped his game up over the past few seasons, finally won a few titles and become a real contender on clay. He has had a decent season so far, with a 12-7 record but is yet to win a title, something that he will like to address quickly. He has been handed a tough draw in his first clay court event of the season however, against the in-form Dusan Lajovic, fresh from winning a title last week. FAA is still the big favorite, but it may take him some time to get going here.
Dusan Lajovic is ranked 40th in the world and is unseeded here at the Madrid Masters. The Serbian is in incredible form, having undergone a giant-killing title run last week at home. Defeating the likes of Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic, his confidence will be extremely high, and he carried that form over into this event, cruising past Jason Kubler in straight sets. His ultra-consistent baseline game will be sure to cause FAA tons of problems, and some tipsters probably have an upset alert on this one.
Despite FAA’s career struggles on clay, he really has been much improved on the surface and should win here. Dusan Lajovic is a fierce competitor and is very comfortable on this surface, but simply is no match for the Canadian’s firepower. Yes, this is FAA’s first clay match of the year and his opponent is in top form, but he is a top 10 player for a reason and he should come through here. I’m not confident in the straight-sets market, but give me Auger-Aliassime to win a tough one here at the Madrid Masters.