Sebastian Baez vs Jiri Lehecka Prediction & Betting Tips - Winston Salem, USA

Prediction published on 26/08/2023, 05:38  by Daniel Ngulu | Modified on 26/08/2023 at 09:00 in Tennis Predictions

Fifth seed Jiri Lehecka and sixth seed Sebastian Baez will on Sunday battle in the final of the 2023 Winston-Salem Open. Sebastian Baez has made it to the final in back-to-back tournaments. He will now seek to win as he did in Kitzbuhel earlier in the month. The Argentine is having his best-ever tour-level campaign in terms of titles won. He has won the two finals he has played thus far in 2023 though both have been on clay. This is also the first final outside of clay in his career. To set up this showdown with Lehecka, he defeated top seed Borna Coric in three sets. The match lasted for well over three hours as the last two sets required tiebreakers to decide. Baez has won 27 of the 47 matches he has played this season. He has spent the majority of the campaign playing on clay and has only made 10 appearances on hard court. His record on the surface is split in the middle. To boost his confidence for this match, Baez defeated Lehecka the last time they met. This was on indoor hard court last season. The 22-year-old has won nine matches on the trot and is now up to 35th in the live ranking.

Jiri Lehecka is preparing to play in the first tour-level final of his career. It has required some bit of luck though to achieve this feat. The Czech number one was granted a walkover by third seed Sebastian Korda in the semifinals. This however shouldn’t overrule the work he has done to reach the final. In his last match, he defeated Max Purcell in straight sets after dropping a set in each of his first two matches. Having defeated Baez before in a final. He will be confident of winning here. Lehecka beat Baez to lift the ITF M25 in Prague in 2020. The 21-year-old has compiled a 33-21 record in 2023. He has won 18 of 28 matches on hard court which should fuel him further going into this match. This record achievement of his career has also allowed him to move into a record world ranking. He is now up to 30th in the live ranking.