🎾 ATP Bucharest: Shevchenko vs Misolic – Match Preview

🎾 ATP Bucharest: Shevchenko vs Misolic – Match Preview

🧠 Form & Context

🟨 Alexander Shevchenko

• 📉 Struggling in 2025: 5–11 overall, just 1–3 on clay, with early exits in Girona, Miami, and Phoenix.
• 🧱 Clay experience, little success: 178–112 career clay record, but 2025 form is shaky.
• 📍 Bucharest debut: Competing in the main draw for the first time, looking for a reset.

🟥 Filip Misolic

• 🔥 Solid season: 16–8 in 2025, including a strong run through Bucharest qualifying and a R16 showing in Girona.
• 📈 Clay comfort: 5–3 on clay this season, 146–76 career mark on the surface.
• 🎯 Momentum building: Wins over Blanchet, Martineau, and Zapata Miralles show he's in rhythm.
• ⚔️ Match-ready: Won 4 of his last 5 matches, including multiple tight three-setters.

🔍 Match Breakdown

Shevchenko brings a more explosive game and higher peak level, but his lack of rhythm, match confidence, and recent results on clay make him a question mark. His serve and power can trouble Misolic—but only if he plays clean and stays composed.

Misolic, meanwhile, has already adapted to Bucharest’s conditions, built momentum through qualifying, and is playing with control and purpose. His consistency and clay-court patterns should frustrate Shevchenko if rallies extend beyond 4–5 shots.

Shevchenko won their only prior meeting in a Futures event (2021), but that result holds little relevance today.

🔮 Prediction

Pick: Misolic in 3 sets

Unless Shevchenko rediscovers his form and takes control early, Misolic’s clay-court craft and recent form give him the edge in this close, tactical matchup.