ATP Tournament in Queens, 1st Round, Tuesday, 20/06/2023
The first round of the ATP Masters 2023 in Queens is already in full swing. On Tuesday lunchtime at 13:00 Central European Time, US player Maxime Cressy will face Denmark’s Holger Rune.
With Wimbledon just around the corner, the players are likely to see the grass court tournament in London as perfect preparation for the highlight of the year.
Find out what the betting odds are for this match and why I expect the young star to win in my Cressy Rune tip.
Maxime Cressy can’t really be satisfied with his performances in the 2023 calendar year. The 2.01 metre tall man has only managed to win 7 of his 21 games in 2023, which means that the US-American is playing the worst year of his career.
Cressy has now waited 10 games for a win, the last success he celebrated four months ago in Dubai indoors.
The 26-year-old currently lacks self-confidence, as almost nothing in his game is working as desired. He also lost his first match on grass in 2023 just over a week ago in Hertogenbosch against Marc-Andrea Huesler.
Although Cressy was considered the favourite by the betting companies before the match, he lost to Huesler in two sets, 2:6 and 6:7. The only glimmer of hope is that Cressy won 11 out of 15 matches on grass last year.
The situation is completely different for world number six Holger Rune: The 20-year-old is considered the biggest tennis talent at the moment behind Carlos Alcaraz and has been able to justify this status with regularity in recent months.
In 2023, the young Dane picked up 30 wins in 41 matches, statistically speaking he is playing the best year of his still young career. Nevertheless, the bookmakers are holding back a bit on the odds.
If, contrary to my expectations, Cressy should emerge as the winner of the match, the bookmakers will reward him with 2.5 times the payout. The fact that the odds are so modest is probably due to the fact that Rune has only played six times on grass in his career.
Of those, the 20-year-old has won just two matches, and in 2023 Rune has not even played on grass.
Nevertheless, the winner of this year’s ATP tournament in Munich is in such impressive form that a clear victory against Cressy seems likely to me.
Rune was also convincing at the French Open, but he lost quite clearly to Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals with 1:6, 2:6, 6:3 and 3:6.
Before that, the top talent was able to eliminate the US-American Eubanks in round 1, after which he clearly defeated Olivieri in three sets. In the round of the last 16, Rune narrowly beat the currently outstanding Francisco Cerundolo in a 5-set thriller.
For months, the clay court lover has been in absolute top form, in 3 of the last 5 tournaments the 1.88 metre tall professional made it to the final. In the process, he won against almost every big name, Djokovic and Ruud, as well as Sinner and Medvedev have already lost out to Rune this year.
To date, the US American and the Dane have already faced each other in four matches. Rune has won three of them without losing a set, but Cressy won the most recent encounter in Montpellier 2-1.
There, Cressy won 7:5, 6:7 and 7:6 after two tiebreaks. The world No. 42 also had a chance at the Australian Open in January when he won 5:7, 4:6 and 4:6.
The grass-court tournament in London will be extremely important for Cressy because it is the best preparation for the Wimbledon tournament, which will also take place on grass in July. In addition, the French-born player has to be careful not to slip out of the top-50 in the ATP rankings.
Last year, the 26-year-old even managed to win a competition on grass with the tournament in Newport, whereas Holger Rune is waiting for his first tournament win on grass.
However, the recent defeat against Huesler showed that Cressy is miles away from his top form.
With a return rate of only 27%, it will be extremely difficult against the strong Rune.
The recent matches on grass have shown once again: It is not uncommon for the absolute top players to lose their first round match on grass against supposed underdogs, especially when it is the first match on this surface in a long time.
Even though Rune has almost no experience on grass, I simply cannot imagine that Cressy will cause him any problems.
Especially because Cressy has been so weak on his opponent’s serve this year, I think the odds should be even more in Rune’s favour.
Therefore, my tip is: Holger Rune wins against Maxime Cressy!
