Day 2 at the ATP 500 event in Hamburg will feature a lot of the seeds making their debut and should provide a lot of high quality and entertaining matches. While most of the world’s best players (bar Zverev and Rune) have chosen to skip this tournament, there are a lot of clay court specialists in the draw vying for a rare title at this level.
ATP Hamburg Day 2 Predictions
Luciano Darderi vs Lorenzo Sonego
Head-to-head: first meeting
This all-Italian matchup should be very tight, but on clay Darderi should ultimately have the edge. He’s having a nice season and has been steadily climbing up the rankings on the back of his good performances on clay and has a chance to make a run here this week. Sonego has been having a bit of a rough season and will do everything he can to start reviving it here though.
Prediction: Darderi in 3
Facundo Diaz Acosta vs Hugo Gaston
Head-to-head: Diaz Acosta 1-0 Gaston
Diaz Acosta had the best week of his career in Buenos Aires, but since then he has been struggling quite a lot even on clay. Gaston, however, remains a mercurial but very inconsistent player, giving Diaz Acosta a good chance to start a run here. On clay, he should have the edge in this matchup, even if it should be quite close.
Prediction: Diaz Acosta in 3
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Dominik Koepfer vs Sebastian Baez
Head-to-head: Koepfer 1-0 Baez
Baez’s performance in clay Masters and Roland Garros was quite disappointing, but at lower level clay events he has been performing incredibly well, with back to back titles at Rio and Santiago keeping him top 20 in the rankings. Hamburg is yet another opportunity for him to make a deep run on clay and climb further up the rankings. On paper, he should be able to make it through this first round without much difficulty.
Prediction: Baez in 2
Arthur Fils vs Jaume Munar
Head-to-head: Fils 1-0 Munar
Fils had a great tournament at Wimbledon and keeps steadily climbing up the rankings. He clearly has the bigger game of the two here and far higher upside going forward, but Munar has managed to remain an ATP level player for a long time based on times collected in this kind of clay events so he can never be underestimated, especially as clay is far from Fils’s best surface.
Prediction: Fils in 3
Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports