Wednesday delivers a pretty loaded schedule in Paris, with 14 of 16 second round singles matches to be decided. They include six of the world’s top 10, as well as four of the five players jockeying to place themselves in qualifying position for the ATP Finals, which start just one week from Sunday. Novak Djokovic and Casper Ruud already advanced to the third round on Tuesday evening, who will join them?
While Djokovic will not be in singles action on Wednesday, he will play his second round doubles match.
Each day, this preview will analyze the most intriguing matchup, while highlighting other notable matches on the schedule. Wednesday’s play gets underway at 11:00am local time.
Jannik Sinner (8) vs. Carlos Alcaraz – Fourth on Court 1
20-year-old Sinner had a fantastic October, taking two titles (Sofia, Antwerp) and reaching the semifinals last week in Vienna. The Italian has now won five events since last November. And he is currently in the eighth and final qualifying position for Turin, though Hubi Hurkacz and Cam Norrie are both within 105 points of Sinner’s current point tally. 18-year-old Alcaraz is now 16-6 since July, a run highlighted by his first ATP tournament win in Umag, and his Major quarterfinal debut in New York. And the Spaniard owns victories over Andy Murray, Matteo Berrettini, and Stefanos Tsitsipas. This will be the first of what is expected to be many career meetings between two of the sport’s most likely candidates to compete for Major titles in years to come. Based on how confident Sinner currently feels on indoor hard courts, I like his chances of starting this rivalry off with a win.
Other Notable Matches on Wednesday:
Grigor Dimitrov (16) vs. Karen Khachanov – Khachanov was the champion here three years ago, but hasn’t won a title since. And Dimitrov hasn’t won a title since the ATP Finals this month four years ago. Their only previous encounter was last October in Vienna, which went to Grigor in straight sets.
Andrey Rublev (5) vs. Taylor Fritz – Fritz has won nine of his last 11 matches, while Rublev went just 1-2 in back-to-back tournaments in his home country. Earlier this year in Dubai, Rublev defeated Fritz 6-3, 6-1.
Stefanos Tsitsipas (3) vs. Alexei Popyrin (LL) – Popyrin is replacing Lloyd Harris in the draw. Tsitsipas was one of many top players upset last week in Vienna by Frances Tiafoe.
Filip Polasek and John Peers (6) vs. Novak Djokovic and Filip Krajinovic (WC) – Polasek and Peers were champions last month in Indian Wells. Djokovic and Krajinovic took out Luke Saville and Alex de Minaur on Monday.
Sascha Zverev (4) vs. Dusan Lajovic – Zverev is now 51-13 on the year, and is 5-0 in finals. And he’s 3-0 against Lajovic, which includes a straight-set victory this past February at the Australian Open.
Daniil Medvedev (2) vs. Ilya Ivashka – This will be Medvedev’s first match since his bizarre defeat in Indian Wells at the hands of Dimitrov, where he forfeited a huge lead, up a set and two breaks. Ivashka won his first ATP title this summer in Winston-Salem. They’ve never played at tour-level, but Medvedev has beaten Ivashka three times in lower-level tournaments.
Marin Cilic vs. Sebastian Korda – Cilic was the runner-up two weeks ago in Moscow, and the champion last week in St. Petersburg. Korda survived a third-set tiebreak on Monday against Aslan Karatsev. Back in March, Korda upset Cilic in Acapulco.
Wednesday’s full Order of Play is here.
Correction: a previous version of this article stated Jannik Sinner made the final last week in Vienna. This has been corrected to state he reached the semifinals.