Miami Open: David Goffin vs. James Duckworth 3/26/21 Tennis Prediction

Eighth seeded Belgian David Goffin meets unseeded James Duckworth of Australia in the First Round of the 2021 Miami Open. The match is scheduled to be played on Friday March 26th, 2021 at 11:00am EST. 

These players have never met before on the ATP Tour. Will it be the unseeded Aussie causing the stunning upset? Or can the highly favored Belgian get his 2021 season back on track with a dominant performance here at the 2021 Miami Open?

David Goffin is currently ranked #13 and will be hoping to get closer to the top 10 with a strong performance here. He has had an inconsistent 2021 season which started strongly with a title win at the Open Sud de France, but has not won reached the Third Round at a tournament since. He will be hoping to turn his season around here at the 2021 Miami Open with a win over unseeded James Duckworth. Usually a very solid baseliner, he has been struggling with consistency recently, and is clearly not himself. While he enters this match as the favorite, his current form suggests that he may be in for a battle. 

James Duckworth is currently ranked #104 and has previously been ranked as high as #71 in the world rankings. Despite the huge difference in their rankings, Duckworth will take confidence in the fact that his opponent is going through a very poor run of form, and has been upset before in big tournaments. That being said, Goffin is still a top 15 player and Duckworth will be up against it here. He is a fighter, but knows that he will have to play one of the best matches of his life here at the 2021 Miami Open. He enters this match as a big underdog, but will be backing himself here after a solid performance in the First Round, winning in three sets against Mischa Zverev. 

While he is currently in poor form, I expect David Goffin to be too much for Duckworth to handle, and he will get the win here. Duckworth lacks the weapons to blow the Belgian off the court, so Goffin will have time to settle and work himself into the match. It won’t be pretty, but David Goffin simply has too much quality for the Australian to handle, and will win here, advancing to the Third Round here at the 2021 Miami Open.