ATP Tournament in Lyon, Quarterfinals, Thursday, 19.05.2022
While the qualifying for the French Open, which will start shortly, is already underway, quite a few stars from the Top 100 have first arrived in Lyon and Geneva. In France, the search is on for Stefanos Tsitsipas’ successor.
In the quarter-finals, we can expect the duel of an Englishman who is listed as an outsider despite his clearly better position in the rankings. Read my Norrie Baez tip to find out what led to this assessment by the bookmakers!
Get confidence for Paris, with this goal Cameron Norrie goes to the start in Lyon. The Englishman does so with good memories, having made it to the final here a year ago.
He beat some top players before Stefanos Tsitsipas was just too strong at 3-6, 3-6. The world number 11 had to struggle quite a bit to open 2022, coming to a 6-4, 6-4 against Francisco Cerundolo.
He started with the same result in Rome before losing to Marin Cilic in three sets. Since Miami, Norrie has always managed to go out in “overtime”. It is difficult to say why his performances fluctuate so much.
He was unable to beat Cilic, but only a few days earlier he had Carlos Alcaraz on the brink of defeat. The 26-year-old has been playing one long match after another in recent weeks, but has not won enough of them.
The odds were just a little bit different, but why is the Argentinian, of all people, narrowly ahead? At 1.70 metres, Baez is virtually much smaller than any of his opponents, and his height is not the only reason why he is reminiscent of Diego Schwartzman.
Baez, who is making his debut in Lyon, started the tournament with an easy 6-2, 6-1 win over compatriot Tomas Martin Etcheverry. He then beat Oscar Otte, but had to push his limits quite a bit here.
The 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 showed that Baez can get stronger with every rally. He only used five of 17 break chances, if he can optimise this value, he will also be a tough opponent against Cameron Norrie.
In Rome, the small Argentinean had beaten Emil Ruusuvuori and Tallon Griekspoor, and was also quite convincing in his 6-7, 3-6 win over Alexander Zverev. In Estoril, Baez even triumphed and won the title in the end.
There is no question that the 21-year-old is in really good form at the moment and shows that South Americans really like the red clay. Will it even be enough to beat the eleventh best player in the world?
My Norrie Baez Tip
The bookies are far from unanimous on whether Cameron Norrie or Sebastian Baez will come out on top on Thursday. The Argentine grabs the slight advantage, presumably due to his title win in Estoril.
From what I could discover in my analysis, the Brit has been eliminated in three sets for months. Since Baez is also known for three sets, I can only guess:
We see more than 20.5 games!
