Cameron Norrie vs Francisco Cerundolo Prediction & Betting Tips - Lyon, France

Prediction published on 16/05/2022, 10:17  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 16/05/2022 at 11:39 in Tennis Predictions

Cameron Norrie is the top seed for the Lyon Open. He takes on Francisco Cerundolo in the second round after receiving a bye into the last 16. Norrie is the world number 11 but can't get into the top ten in time for Roland Garros. The British number one has had a mixed clay court season to date. His best performance was getting to the last eight in Barcelona. He then lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the last 16 of the Madrid Masters and last week won one match in Rome before being beaten in the last 32 by Marin Cilic. He has won one title this year, being successful in the Delray Beach Open. Norrie then lost to Nadal in the Mexican Open final. He has never won an ATP clay court title but was the losing finalist to Stefanos Tsitsipas here last year (not defending his title) and also in Estoril. His best performance in the French Open also came last year when reaching the third round.

Francisco Cerundolo is ranked 44th in the world but can climb to 41st if winning this match. The Argentinian did well in the South American clay court season held earlier in the year. He won the title in Santa Cruz but that was on the Challenger Tour and no top 100 ranked players were beaten that week. On the ATP Tour, he got to the last eight in Buenos Aries, losing to Diego Schwartzmann.  He lost to him again in the last four in Rio de Janeiro.  He's not just good on clay and got to the semi-finals at Indian Wells just before the European clay court season began. His form surprisingly dipped with disastrous results in Munich and Madrid. He lost in the first qualifying round of both events to players ranked outside the top 100. In Madrid, he lost to Alejandro Moro Canas who was ranked 444th at the time. He did better in Rome last week, getting through qualifying but then losing to John Isner. Cerundolo had a struggle in the first round needing three sets to get past James Duckworth.  Back Norrie to win this and set up a quarter final possibly against Sebastian Baez.