Luca Nardi vs Dominic Thiem Prediction & Betting Tips - Antwerp, Belgium

Prediction published on 16/10/2023, 08:40  by Joseph King | Modified on 17/10/2023 at 06:55 in Tennis Predictions

The ATP European Open at Antwerp enters into the main draw with Wild Card qualifying Luca Nardi taking on unseeded Dominic Thiem. The winner of this round of 32 clash will go on to face off fifth-seeded Yannick Hanfmann, who received a bye to advance automatically. 20-year-old Luca Nardi will be hoping to cause the upset here against his opponent 10 years his senior. The young Italian is coming off a semi-final appearance in the Bratislava 2 Challenger event on Saturday. Nardi has one competition win to his name in 2023 after taking down the Porto Challenger event in August. On the season, the 133rd-ranked pro has a .500 record of 30 wins and 30 defeats. This will be Nardi’s fourth consecutive tournament played on an indoor hard court where he is 6-3 during this current stretch. His most recent time taking to the court was a straight sets defeat in the Bratislava 2 semi-finals.

Dominic Thiem is still trying to return to his best following his right wrist injury suffered in June of 2021. The 2020 US Open champion has experienced a tough two years which saw him drop to as low as 352nd in the rankings. Thiem, who had achieved a career-high ranking of third, started out the year with a difficult stretch of eight losses from his first nine matches. Since then, however, he’s shown flashes of his past brilliance. Thiem has three quarter-final appearances, a semi-final appearance and a runner-up finish so far in 2023. The 30-year-old’s last outing resulted in a second-round exit at the Bratislava 2 Challenger event due to a 2-1 loss to 130th-ranked Gabriel Dallo. Thiem has a losing record on the year with 23 wins and 26 losses to his name. Career wise, the Austrian has always been more of a clay specialist. His winning mark of 71.95% is well above his results on hard surfaces.