ATP Tournament in Mallorca, 2nd Round, Wednesday, 28.06.2023
Yannick Hanfmann had an ideal start into the ATP Tournament in Mallorca. He swept Pedro Cachin off the court with 6-2, 6-1. Stefanos Tsitsipas now awaits him in round two.
The Greek had a hard time in his first matches on grass. Does the German stand a chance? I’ll go into that in my Tsitsipas Hanfmann tip.
2023 has been Hanfmann’s tennis year so far. The German has won 33 of his 49 matches and is ranked 48th, his highest career world ranking to date.
The Karlsruhe native reached the quarter-finals at the Masters in Rome, before that he reached the semi-finals in Houston and another quarter-final in Chile. From his parade surface he went to grass last week.
He has the lowest win percentage (48 per cent) on the fastest surface on tour. Can he improve that this year with his strong form?
He started on the green in Halle last week, beating compatriot Louis Wessels in three sets. He finished one round later against Andrey Rublev (7-6, 6-3).
He didn’t let that impress him at the start in Mallorca and started with a dominant 6-2, 6-1. He took five service games from the Argentine and fended off four opportunities himself.
Hanfmann laid the foundation with a good first serve. 77 percent of the points went to his own account. His opponent only managed 50 per cent.
However, Cachin is anything but a grass court specialist. The 28-year-old has stood on the court with the chalk lines seven times and has only won two matches in his career.
Mallorca was also the first grass court tournament for Cachin this year. For Hanfmann’s second-round opponent Tsitsipas it is already the third.
The Greek (1.25 odds) goes into the match as the clear favourite. For Bet365, Hanfmann (4.00) advancing would be quite a surprise.
However, Tsitsipas had his problems with the rubber change. In Stuttgart, he failed in his opener against Richard Gasquet and in Halle, too, he only made it to round two.
There, after a close first round win (vs Gregoire Barrere, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6) Nicolas Jarry (6-7, 5-7) took him out of the tournament.
He played out four tiebreaks in his first three games. Betano is serving 1.93 odds for over 0.5 tiebreaks on Wednesday. Six times the stake awaits as a win for more than 1.5 tiebreaks.
Tsitsipas had problems especially with his break chances. He missed all five chances against Jarry. Barrere even fended off ten opportunities.
If the Greek also returns strongly on Mallorca and this time shows more efficiency on break points, it could become uncomfortable for Hanfmann.
In the direct duel between the two professionals, the score is 1:1. The encounters date back six and seven years. In 2016, Hanfmann (6-4, 6-4) still had the edge over the then 17-year-old Tsitsipas on clay in Austria.
One year later, the man from Athens returned the favour in the Wimbledon qualifier (7-6, 7-6). Two tiebreaks were played in this match.
Will Tsitsipas win again in two sets against the German? Bet365 assigns odds of 1.80 to the 2:0. The 2:1 is in the range of 3.50.
Conclusion: Tsitsipas struggled in Stuttgart and Halle. However, with Gasquet and Jarry he did not face easy opponents either. Hanfmann could also be unpleasant for him.
But the Greek played better in all matches than the results show. He regularly plays himself into break chances, but uses only too few. Overall, Tsitsipas is clearly the better player on grass.
Last year he won the tournament in Mallorca and I am convinced that he will be able to improve his game after the tournaments in Germany and that he will be able to hit the break chances.
That’s why I recommend an even 2:0 in my Tsitsipas Hanfmann tip.
