ATP Tournament in Halle, Round of 16, Wednesday, 21.06.2023
It won’t be two weeks until the elite of the tennis world will be in London to start the third Grand Slam tournament of the year! In the days leading up to it, the big names will be attacking at the preparatory tournaments.
Soon the form has to be right, for the world number 3 this is absolutely not the case yet. On Wednesday, the latter wants to survive in the round of 16 in Halle, and is also clearly favoured by Bet365.
In my Medvedev Djere tip, however, I now reveal why I still expect at least 20 games!
Daniil Medvedev is anything but a lover of the sandy surface, as his fans have known for years. As surprising as his final victory in Rome was, it became clear at the French Open that it was probably more of a lucky flash in the pan.
In Paris, he failed directly in the first round, losing in five sets to a qualifier from Brazil. A little later in Hertogenbosch, he finally felt something else under his feet – the green grass.
The Russian is actually much better on the much faster surface, but the change obviously caused him a lot of trouble. Or how else can it be explained that he lost 6-4, 4-6, 2-6 to Adrian Mannarino in the 1st round?
It can only get better in Halle and at least Medvedev has already overcome the first hurdle. He won 6-4, 6-3 against Marcos Giron and did not let the US American break at all.
The sovereign success should give him a bit of a boost again, although Laslo Djere will probably prove to be a bit stronger. At least Medvedev knows exactly how to perform here in Halle.
A year ago he reached the final here but was beaten quite clearly by Hubert Hurkacz. Before Medvedev thinks about another final, he first has to get through the last 16.
Laslo Djere has faced him twice so far, in 2017 and 2022. If the Russian retired stricken six years ago, he won outright at the French Open a year ago. A result that the experts at our bookmakers obviously still remember.
They see the Russian top player clearly in the lead and offer odds of 1.12 to 6.00. Or as they say instead of Laslo Djere: “There’s nothing to lose, practically no one is counting on me!
The Serb has already had a performance in Halle, which the German fans would have loved to have experienced differently. He won 7-6, 6-3 against Oscar Otte, a whopping 91% of successful points on the first service were really strong.
In Hertogenbosch, his performances were a little stronger than Medvedev’s. He was already eliminated in the round of 16, but a 1-6, 7-6, 3-6 against Alex de Minaur can happen easily.
But Djere should not think back to last year when it comes to the tournament in Halle. First a win against a German, then a loss against a Russian (Khachanov)? That could actually happen again now!
My Medvedev Djere tip
The times seem to be over when Daniil Medvedev dominated his opponents and rushed from victory to victory. He has been struggling for more than a year now. Now he is playing his second tournament on clay, the first one was a big disappointment.
It is very difficult to judge him. His opponent, Laslo Djere, is by no means a bad player, but not one of the world’s best. Nevertheless, Medvedev is simply too inconsistent for me, so I think:
We’ll see more than 19.5 games!
