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ATP Tournament in Acapulco, 1st Round, Wednesday, 23.02.2022
The tennis world is a bit divided at the moment, as while one half of the men have pitched their tents in Dubai, the other is playing their matches under the Mexican sun. A number of German stars are also competing in Acapulco.
While Alexander Zverev wants to defend his 2021 title, Daniel Altmaier was already happy about successfully mastering the qualification. Find out whether the 23-year-old can now also hold his own against a real top player in my Altmaier Norrie tip!
Number 84 in the world rankings? Daniel Altmaier’s minimum goal for the 2022 tennis year will undoubtedly be to at least maintain this position. He already proved that he has what it takes at the Australian Open.
Although he was eliminated in the first round, anyone who manages to force Alexander Zverev into two tiebreaks definitely has great potential. After his respectable performance in Down Under, Altmaier was able to confirm his ability.
In Dallas and Delray, he started strong against Andreas Seppi and Jack Sock respectively, but did not maintain his level – and lost twice with 1:2 sets. He has not yet reached the consistency of the greats, and his first-serve yield is also in need of improvement.
Now the German is competing in Acapulco for the second time in his career and has made it through the qualifying rounds for the first time in 2022. However, this did not come without trepidation. First, Ernesto Escobedo was defeated 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
Afterwards, Altmaier won 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 against Denis Kudla. As happy as he was about the successful qualification: He was seeded at position 1, so it was also to be expected that he would prevail in this field.
Now he meets Cameron Norrie for the very first time, and the bookmakers don’t think he has much of a chance. At Betano, the odds remain just under 5.00, as his opponent is a real top player.
Of course, the Brit could save himself the qualification, after all, he is the number 6 of all participants. He should not be unhappy that it now comes to a match against Daniel Altmaier.
The draw had actually given him a match against Spanish prodigy Carlos Alcaraz, but as the latter only celebrated a title in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, he understandably withdrew his participation in Mexico.
Can Norrie now distance himself once again from his less than successful start to the year? His Australian Open was ended immediately by a 3-6, 0-6, 4-6 against Sebastian Korda, something few had expected.
His form curve, however, went steeply uphill afterwards. In Rotterdam he beat Ugo Humbert and Karen Khachanov in two sets, then lost very narrowly to Felix Auger-Aliassime.
In Delray, the Briton was the acclaimed winner in the end. He beat Oscar Otte and Tommy Paul, took revenge for the loss to Sebastian Korda and won the final 7-6, 7-6 against Reilly Opelka.
His point yield in this final was over 90% on first serve, a value that Daniel Altmaier almost never achieves. No wonder, then, that a win by the Briton on Tuesday only makes it to a 1.20.
But he certainly knows how it feels to be eliminated against German players in Acapulco. Last year he failed to beat Dominik Koepfer in the quarter-finals, and in 2019 Alexander Zverev threw him out in the semi-finals.
My Norrie Altmaier Tip
Does Daniel Altmaier really stand a chance against this Cameron Norrie? At the Australian Open, I probably would have answered “yes” to that question, because here the Brit wasn’t in a good mood at all.
But in the last few weeks he has improved a lot and beaten many strong players. Altmaier’s form is not bad, but to keep up with Norrie, it will take more than solid performances.
Therefore, I don’t think he can really surprise on Tuesday and am betting:
Norrie wins outright against Altmaier!
