Tommy Paul vs Brandon Nakashima Prediction & Betting Tips - Lyon, France

Prediction published on 25/05/2023, 03:36  by Kennedy Kechula | Modified on 25/05/2023 at 05:08 in Tennis Predictions

Third seed Tommy Paul and eighth seeded Brandon Nakashima will on Thursday meet in the quarterfinals of the Lyon Open. The winner here will set up a semifinal showdown with either top seed Felix Auger Aliassime or wildcard Arthur Fils. Tommy Paul is playing in this tournamen for only tthe second time and only reached the second round in 2021. Paul has struggled on clay so far but did get to the final of a Challenger Tour event, losing to Andy Murray. The world number 17 beat crowd favorite Gregoire Barrere 2-1 in the second round. Paul and Nakashima have met twice before but have never met on clay. Each has won one match; Paul won the first meeting in 2019 at the Cary Challenger.,

Brandon Nakashima has been a bit part player this season; he has only played 12 matches so far. He has been inconsistent, and lost seven of those matches. The American has however had a positive start to his debut in Lyon and will hope to prolong his stay past this round. He has won his two matches here, and dropped one set in the process. After defeating Diego Schwartzman 2-0 in round one, Nakashima battled to win a three-set thriller against Arthur Rinderknech to book this round. The match lasted two hours and 42 minutes and this could take a toll on him. Those two wins were his first in four matches on clay this season. Despite managing 13 ranking points with the two wins, Nakashima is down one place to 53rd in the live ranking. The 21-year-old defeated Paul in their last encounter at the Libema Open in 2022.