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Alcaraz stumbles past Thompson on Tuesday
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Djokovic faces Davidovich Fokina test
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Veterans hoping to roll back the years with wins
Several big names out from Tuesday's action
There were shocks on Tuesday in Cincinnati, with Andrey Rublev exiting at the hands of Emil Ruusuvuori, and in the early round two matches, Felix Auger-Aliassime ousted by Adrian Mannarino. In round two, tournament favourite Carlos Alcaraz was pushed to three sets by Jordan Thompson, but prevailed 6-3 in the deciding set.
Davidovich Fokina needing to keep high level up
The outright market has struggled to split Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic prior to the tournament as favourite and it will be interesting to see the reaction if the Serb eases past Alejandro Davidovich Fokina this evening in his tournament opener.
Davidovich Fokina impressed last week in Toronto, reaching the semi-final, and beating Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev in the process, but he will need to play at a high level again if he is to test Djokovic, although the world number two could well be rusty after not having played since Europe. Djokovic is 1.171/6 to make round two.
The winner from that match faces the victor of the Gael Monfils and Alex De Minaur clash, with the market making Monfils underdog at 2.9215/8 to continue quite a good string of results pretty much out of nowhere. Monfils versus Djokovic would be one for the fans, for sure, but De Minaur is a justified solid favourite to defeat the French veteran.
Wawrinka with underdog chance against Tiafoe
Another veteran is back in action on Wednesday with Stan Wawrinka facing a tough challenge from the tenth seed, Frances Tiafoe. The Swiss man will be heartened by having never lost to Tiafoe, although it did take deciding sets reading 7-6, 7-6, and 7-5 to win their three previous meetings.
Also, for the first two meetings, Wawrinka was a heavy pre-match favourite, which of course he isn't today - a great example of the frequent meaningless of head-to-head records, which are often discussed as being a matter of real relevance in the media.
Two titles and a semi-final at Indian Wells is a decent return for Tiafoe so far this year, although his performances at recent events have been pretty uninspiring. Tiafoe's strong serve should stand him in good stead here, although Wawrinka's continued will to win could give him an underdog's chance at 2.707/4.
Medvedev and Tsitsipas strong market favourites
In other matches, Daniil Medvedev faces a tough early test against the improving Italian, Lorenzo Musetti, but is 1.251/4 to get the win and set up a potential clash with Alexander Zverev in round three.
Also, Stefanos Tsitsipas meets Ben Shelton in what could turn into a pretty high-variance, big-serving clash which won't necessarily suit the fourth seed.
He is 1.331/3 to get past the threat of Shelton, who has picked up a little in recent weeks after a really tough few months, but with both players holding in excess of 85% on hard court this season so far, Tsitsipas will need to take the few break points on offer in order to avoid being drawn into tiebreaks.