Ben Shelton vs Zizou Bergs Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Houston

Prediction published on 02/04/2024, 09:11  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 02/04/2024 at 10:12 in Tennis Predictions

Top seed Ben Shelton begins his campaign in the US clay court championships. He takes on unseeded Zizou Bergs in round two with the winner due to face unseeded opposition in the quarter finals. That will be against either Brandon Nakashima or Rinky Hijikata. Shelton is ranked 16th and that's only one place below the career high he set last year. The American has reached two semi-finals and a quarter final so far this year. All those performances were on hard courts and now he begins his clay court season. Shelton is best known for his success on hard courts and didn't set the world alight on clay in 2023. His best performance was reaching the semi-final of a Challenger Tour event in Cagliari. In ATP Tour events, Shelton won only two of his nine matches.

Zizou Bergs is at a career high 111th in the latest list. The first round of this tournament saw him beat qualifier Patrick Kypson in straight sets. That's taken him up to a new career high of 105th.  Before this week most of his wins this year had come in the qualifying rounds of ATP Tour events. His win over Kypson was the first main draw match on the ATP Tour that he's won since July 2023. That was in the clay court tournament held in Gastad where he reached the quarter finals. He also won a clay court Challenger Tour event and got to the last 16 here in 2023. That was as a lucky loser after being knocked out in the qualifying rounds. Our tip here is for over 0.5 tie-breaks to be played.