Francisco Cerundolo vs Daniel Altmaier Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Hamburg European Open

Prediction published on 18/07/2022, 14:56  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 19/07/2022 at 05:15

Francisco Cerundolo takes on Daniel Altmaier in the first round of the Hamburg Open. Both are unseeded and in round two the winner takes on either Alexander Bublik or second seed Andrey Rublev. Cerundolo is ranked 30th in the world and that's a career high for him. It's quite an achievement as he was down at 103rd in March. He comes into this tournament fresh from winning the Swedish Open on Sunday. He only dropped one set in that event and that was to Casper Ruud. That was his first tournament since Wimbledon where he lost in the first round but did take a set off Rafa Nadal. He's not won a match in a Grand Slam this year so needs to improve that at the US Open. Earlier this year, he also won a Challenger Tour clay court tournament held in Bolivia. On the main ATP Tour, he got to a last eight and semi-final in South America but struggled on the European clay until last week.

Daniel Altmaier is 56th in the rankings, just three places below his career high. The German was down at 91st place six months ago. This year has seen the 23-year-old get to the final of a Challenger Tour event held in Phoenix in March. His clay court season hasn't been a spectacular one. Altmaier lost to the then world number 292 Jonas Forejtk in Prague but later won a Challenger Tour tournament in Germany but no top 100 ranked players were beaten. He didn't build on that though, losing his next four matches before a quarter final on grass in Mallorca. He returned to clay last week and lost to Ellas Ymer who's ranked outside the top 130. He must be fed up of the Ymer family as Mikael beat him at Wimbledon. He has had one previous match against Cerundolo, beating him on clay but that was three years ago. Go for Cerundolo to continue his winning form and get to the second round.