{"id":67171,"date":"2026-05-18T04:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/67171\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T04:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:18:08","slug":"geneva-picks-michelsen-vs-baez-mpetshi-perricard-vs-tsitsipas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/67171\/","title":{"rendered":"Geneva picks: Michelsen vs. Baez, Mpetshi Perricard vs. Tsitsipas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DBO2604_0890_alex-michelson-e1779064343790-678x381.jpg\" alt=\"Alex Michelsen\" title=\"Alex Michelsen\"\/><br \/>\nAndrew Patron\/Delray Beach Open<\/p>\n<p>A couple of tough first-round matchups in a strong Geneva field will take center stage on Monday. Alex Michelsen kicks off his week against Sebastian Baez, while Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard battles Stefanos Tsitsipas.<br \/>Sebastian Baez vs. Alex Michelsen<br \/>Michelsen and Baez will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers when they meet in round one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/tenngrand.com\/hamburg-and-geneva-previews-and-predictions-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Geneva Open<\/a> on Monday. This is an important time of year for Baez, because he has always done by far his best work on clay \u2014 although he did capture a hard-court ATP title three years ago in Winston-Salem. Six of the Argentine\u2019s seven tour-level trophies are from clay events, but only one has come on the pre-French Open European swing. Baez has rarely been in peak form in April and May, and 2026 is no exception. The world No. 62 is a disappointing 4-6 in 10 dirt matches over the course of these two months, and he is 4-8 in his last 12 matches overall dating back to Indian Wells.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately for Baez, this could be a favorable first-round draw against Michelsen. The 21-year-old American is a clay-court novice who is 2-5 on the surface so far in 2026 \u2014 with wins only over world No. 124 Coleman Wong and world No. 81 Jan-Lennard Struff. This stretch even includes a first-round exit from a Challenger event at the hands of 312th-ranked Pol Martin Tiffin. Michelsen would almost certainly win this matchup on a hard court or grass, but it should go Baez\u2019s way on the slow stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Pick: Baez in 3<\/p>\n<p>(WC) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard<br \/>It\u2019s not often that you see Tsitsipas require a wild card into an ATP 250 tournament (especially one that is taking place right before a Grand Slam), but that is the case in Geneva. The 27-year-old has been in mediocre-at-best form this season and finds himself down at No. 82 in the rankings. Tsitsipas at least managed to reach round four in Madrid and pushed Casper Ruud to a third-set tiebreaker, but he lost right away in Rome to Tomas Machac.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Tsitsipas.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Tsitsipas.png\" alt=\"Tsitsipas\" class=\"wp-image-42096 lazyload\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5024313900844;width:539px;height:auto\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"939\" height=\"625\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Tsitsipas.png\" alt=\"Tsitsipas\" class=\"wp-image-42096 lazyload\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5024313900844;width:539px;height:auto\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Up first for the Greek on Monday is Mpetshi Perricard, whom he has never faced. The 6\u20197\u201d Frenchman has been in even worse form in 2026, arriving in Geneva with a 6-10 record on the main tour. Mpetshi Perricard actually won a clay-court title in 2024 (Lyon), but nothing suggests that he will find success on clay again anytime soon. A slow surface should help Tsitsipas weather his opponent\u2019s booming serve and secure a much-needed victory.<\/p>\n<p>Pick: Tsitsipas in 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Patron\/Delray Beach Open A couple of tough first-round matchups in a strong Geneva field will take center&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[36447,36080,65,36073,36448,36449,36293],"class_list":["post-67171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-alex-michelsen","tag-atp-geneva","tag-geneva","tag-geneva-open","tag-giovanni-mpetshi-perricard","tag-sebastian-baez","tag-stefanos-tsitsipas"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116593656262838499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}