Roman Safiullin vs Alexei Popyrin Prediction: Safiullin made noticeable progress last season

In the tournament in Brisbane, Alexey Popyrin will face Russian Roman Safiullin. The guys have crossed each other twice before, the score of the confrontation is 1:1, and bookmakers favor the Russian tennis player.

Last season, Roman finished the Masters in Paris, reaching the round of 16 and losing to Karen Khachanov at this stage. Safiullin started the 2024 season with a victory over Ben Shelton, the 17th-ranked player in the world. The match against the American lasted two hours and 39 minutes, and Roman won it 6:3, 6:7, 6:3. During the game, Roman made eight aces with six double faults, won 88% of points on the first serve, and 62% on the second.

At the end of November 2023, Popyrin played two matches for Australia at the Davis Cup: he beat Virtanen and lost to Arnaldi. In Brisbane, Alexei beat his compatriot O'Connell in three sets: 6:4, 6:7, and 7:6. The match turned out to be long, lasting more than three hours. Popyrin made 12 aces and two double faults during the game, winning 80% of points on the first serve and 61% on the second.

Safiullin has been progressing noticeably in the last season; in Brisbane, Roman beat in three sets the representative of the first twenty ATP ranking, Ben Shelton. Safiullin won the only personal meeting between the guys and played on a hard court. We believe that the bookmakers have set the line correctly, and the Russian has the best chance to reach the tournament's next round in Brisbane. As for the total, we believe that the match will be two sets, and TO will not be reached.