The competition at this week two ATP Tour tournaments the ATP 500 Barcelona and ATP 250 at Budapest should see the competition of the second-round stage and continuation of third round matches today barring any weather delays.
At Barcelona the main talking points so far, this week were the shock upset of second seed Sascha Zverev who crashed out at the second-round stage against Lucky Loser Jarry from Chile from a set up on a third set tie break. Tenth seed Goffin’s disappointing season and run of form continued as he crashed out in his first match against the dangerous Struff from Germany who he’d beaten all four times they met previously on the ATP Tour.
Fourteenth seed Tiafoe also lost at the second-round stage against NextGen Spanish star Munar. Third seed Thiem survived a first match scare winning his potentially challenging match against the diminutive but talented Schwartzman from Argentina 6-3 6-3 and fourth seed and two-time Barcelona champion Nishikori also survived his opening match beating the talented American Fritz 7-5 6-2.
Today’s action will feature top-seed and defending champion Nadal who opens his campaign against Mayer from Argentina and Rafa leads the head-to-head 5-0 and it will be interesting to see how he responds to his shock Monte Carlo semi-final defeat last week. Sixth seed Khachanov faces a tough opener against Pella from Argentina who has been in excellent form on clay so far this season, seventh seed Medvedev also faces a test of his current level of form against experienced clay court veteran qualifier Ramos-Vinolas from Spain.
Monte Carlo Masters 1000 Series winner Fognini has not withdrawn from the tournament at the time of writing and he’s due to face German Wild Card Kuhn and if Fognini lines up it’s worth taking him on either on the exchanges or by backing Kuhn to win on the games handicap.
Ninth seed Shapavolov opens his campaign against the in form Garin (300/1) from Chile, eleventh seed veteran Simon from France opens his campaign against talented NextGen American McDonald, twelfth seed Carreno-Busta faces a tough opener against the talented but inconsistent Paire and there could be an upset on the cards on this occasion as Paire leads the head-to-head 6-4 and has shown signs of some top class form so far this season.
Thirteenth seed Dimitrov opens his campaign against veteran Spaniard Verdasco and it should be a close one as the head-to-head stands at 3-3. Fifteenth seed Pouille will hope to kick start his disappointing 2019 season by beating veteran Wild Card and former top-ten star Ferrer and sixteenth seed NextGen star Auger Aliassime opens his account this week against veteran Jaziri from Turkey.
There’s not much to report from Budapest with the top four seeds joining the action from today, seventh seed Kukushkin was the only seeded player to lose in the first round against Italian Berrettini (25/1), fifth seed Djere knocked out veteran Gulbis in a tight three set encounter, sixth seed Millman impressed thrashing qualifier Kecmanovic 6-1 6-1 and eighth seed Albot also progressed smoothly to the second round knocking out Lucky Loser Stakhovsky in straight sets.
Selections:
Tournament
Budapest
Krajinovic (10/1)
Match bets
Barcelona
Kuhn Win Fognini (7/2)
Pella Win vs Khachanov (11/10)
Budapest
Gojowczyk Win vs Basaliashvili (9/5)
