Christian Garin vs Tommy Paul Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Italian Open

Prediction published on 11/05/2023, 10:12  by Kennedy Kechula | Modified on 12/05/2023 at 03:05 in Tennis Predictions

Unseeded Cristian Garin faces the 16th seed Tommy Paul in the second round of the Rome Masters on Friday. The winner of this latest matchup will advance to the third round to take on either 23rd-seed Botic van de Zandschulp or the unseeded Laslo Djere. Cristian Garin is down 27 places in the live ranking to number 106 after losing 155 ranking points and will want to claw those points back and continue adding to his tally with a sustained performance in what is his fourth appearance in Rome. His best-ever finish here came last season as he made it through to the quarterfinals and so far so good in this year’s edition. The Chilean has started the tournament on a winning note as he defeated the unseeded Argentine Pedro Cachin in three sets in the first round and will hope to keep that momentum and upset Paul once again on clay. Garin beat Paul in the first round at last year’s Roland Garros. He is having an up-and-down season so far on clay with nine wins and six losses from 15 matches. This is their fourth match with Garin 2-1 ahead but that match at Roland Garros is their only previous meeting on this surface.

Tommy Paul is having a tougher time on clay and has won three matches but lost the same number. He however did pick up a bit of steam in his last tournament when reaching the final of the Aix en Provence Challenger Tour event, losing a three-set final to Andy Murray. It was the American’s second final of the season and allowed him to move up to his highest career ranking of number 17. He will hope this momentum takes him past the second round for the first time. Paul has played in Rome three times before and last year set a personal record by making the second round. Paul's only success against Garin was in 2021 in the first round in Cincinnati and then, Garin was the seeded player. So much has changed since and he will come to this match with many having him as the favourite to progress.