Published on 07/01/2025 07:53
by Léo Measson
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Modified on 01/07/2025
has 08:43
In
Tennis Predictions
In this round of 16 of the Auckland tournament in New Zealand, the 22-year-old American Ben Shelton launches his season against the 19-year-old Czech Jakub Mensik. Ben Shelton, seeded number 1, has not played since October. Finalist at the Swiss tournament in Basel against the French Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, he had a series of great victories against the top 20 Andrey Rublev and Arthur Fils. Semi-finalist in this Auckland tournament last year, he should want to do better this time and make an impression in his first tournament of the year.
Jakub Mensik, for his part, won his first round against Lucky Loser Pablo Carreno-Busta, 184th in the world, although losing the second set. The Czech already played a first tournament last week since he took the tournament directly from Australia to Brisbane and won his first two rounds against Mikhail Kukushkin (109th in the world) and Dusan Lajovic (75th in the world), before losing in the quarter-final against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, 30th in the world. An interesting journey for the young player who failed to win a single match during the group stages of the ATP Next Gen Finals in December.
