Frances Tiafoe and Denis Shapovalov will fight for the next-round spot in the second round of the 2024 Roland Garros.
Neither one of them has had a spectacular year so far, though they had moments when they looked close to their peak tennis. The American made a final this year, and it happened to be on clay in Houston, but compatriot Ben Shelton beat him to lift the trophy.
Overall, it's been a strange season for him with an 11-12 record, which is far from a player who has ambitions of being in the Top 10. His ranking dropped off a lot, and if he doesn't figure his tennis out, he'll find himself out of the Top 30 soon. With the Olympics around the corner, that's not ideal.
Shapovalov has not fared much better so far this year, with an 8-13 record, but he's still a slight favorite in this meeting largely because he did well against Tiafoe in previous battles and has a better clay record.
Head-to-head:
Shapovalov and Tiafoe have played six times so far, and the Canadian has won four of those matches. They never played on clay, and their most recent match is some time away, as it happened in 2021 in Toronto.
Recent form favors the 25-year-old a little bit, and he had a better first-round match, but it's close between the two. Neither player is more likely to win based on that. It will largely come down to who plays better on that given day.
| Denis Shapovalov | Frances Tiafoe | |
| 4 | H2H | 2 |
| 118 | Rank | 26 |
| 25 | Age | 26 |
| 8-13 | 2024 W/L | 12-11 |
| 189-162 | Career W/L | 189-176 |
Prediction:
Even though Shapovalov has fared better in their H2H matches, I'll side with Tiafoe because I think the French crowd will back him and carry him to victory.
Prediction: Frances Tiafoe to win in four sets.
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