Francesco Passaro vs Rudolf Molleker Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Munich Open

Prediction published on 14/04/2024, 17:14  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 14/04/2024 at 18:15 in Tennis Predictions

German Rudolf Molleker received a wild card into the main draw of the indoor clay court BMW Open. He faces qualifier Francesco Passaro for a place in round two of this ATP 250 tournament. For the winner there's a match against either the sixth seed Jack Draper or unseeded Vit Kopriva. Molleker is currently 179th in the live rankings but has been as high as 146th in the world. That ranking was achieved five years ago though after qualifying for two Grand Slam main draws, including Roland Garros. The 23-year-old will be playing his first ATP Tour main draw of the year. He's been playing mainly on the Challenger Tour with two quarterfinals and a semifinal but they were in hard court tournaments. Recent form on clay is shaky and he failed to qualify for the ATP event in Marrakech. He has had good results on clay though with over 80 wins in 2022 and 2023 with five titles won at lower levels.

Francesco Passaro was ranked 108th in the world in February of last year but has been slipping down the rankings since then. In the live list he's down to 235th as he's about to lose the points earned when reaching the last 32 in Barcelona last year. The Italian had to qualify to get into this main draw and did well to win both his matches. That was particularly the case in the final qualifying round. He beat Andrea Pellegrino who was the top seed in qualifying. Passaro has been playing a lot on clay in recent weeks and made it to the last eight of a Challenger Tour event in Santiago. He followed that up with a run to the last four in Naples, again a Challenger Tour clay court event. We go for him to get the win in this match.