Frances Tiafoe vs Roman Safiullin – Breakdown and Prediction

October 8, 2024

Frances Tiafoe vs Roman Safiullin: ATP Shanghai – Round of 16

American Frances Tiafoe will take on Roman Safiullin in the round of 16 of the ATP Shanghai.

Frances Tiafoe Profile

Frances Tiafoe is currently 17th in the ATP rankings, seven spots lower than his career high. The American is 31-25 for the season including 21-14 on hard surface.

Tiafoe is coming off a 6-2, 6-4 win over Yi Zhou in the second round of the tournament.

His best result this season was the finals in Houston and Cincinnati as well as the semis at the US Open and Washington.

This is his fifth appearance in Shanghai and for the first time has gone past the second round.

Roman Safiullin Profile

Roman Safiullin is 61st in the ATP rankings and his career high was No. 36. The Russian is 24-25 for the season and 17-13 on hard surface.

Safiullin is coming off a 6-4, 6-2 win over Alexander Bublik in the second round after defeating Beibit Zhukayev in the opener.

Safiullin won the Challenger in Cary earlier in the season.

Last year in Shanghai, he lost to Ben Shelton in the round of 16.

Head-to-Head

This will be the first match between Frances Tiafoe and Roman Safiullin.

Prediction and Conclusion

Frances Tiafoe is having an amazing season, and he almost made it to the SU Open finals. That is a good sign that he is ready to try to come back among the top 10 players in the world. He has been playing in Shanghai for a while and finally has put himself in a situation to go deep in the tournament. Tiafoe will face Roman Safiullin in the round of 16 for the first time in his career. The Russian can serve well and run the court, but he lacks consistency, and Tiafoe will know how to take advantage of that and win the match.