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Horse Racing Tuesday Tennis Best Bet: ATP Umag, Chris O’Connell vs Zsombor Piros
Chris O’Connell vs Zsombor Piros Best Bet: Tuesday, July 25th
We get a nice win for Flavio Cobolli, who played a strong match and was excellent on serve and from the baseline, but a lot of that victory can be chalked up to Marin Cilic clearly being a bit rusty on serve in his own right and somewhat sloppy from the baseline.
For Tuesday, let’s take a deeper look at another match from Umag, this time between Chris O’Connell and Zsombor Piros.
In this article:
Chris O’Connell vs Zsombor Piros Preview
Tue, July 25th, 15:30 (UK Time)
It has been a long slog in 2023 for Piros, but he’s finally going to play in his first main draw of the season at the ATP Tour level. As a promising youngster who has had a lot of physical issues hold him back, the Hungarian has had to grind a lot this year at the Challenger Tour level to help amass the rankings points to get himself into this position.
With a decent forehand, strong baseline game and the ability to play with decent aggression from both wings, one can see why many have been waiting for the 23-year-old’s breakthrough.
Piros managed to reach a trio of quarterfinals at Challenger events, prior to winning the next two he played in succession – all on the clay as well. All that tennis took a toll, however, and he went through a bit of a slump until finding some more success on grass at the level below the main tour.
Those persistent physical problems seemed to come back, however, as he looked as though something was wrong in his win against Charles Broom in Ilkley (he won just three games across two sets in his next match). Those questions came up the next week in Wimbledon qualifying as well, when he looked like he had nothing in the final round to offer against Shintaro Mochizuki, and then once more just last week at the Tampere Challenger, when it looked like he was dealing with something against Henri Squire (not exactly known for his clay-court exploits at any level).
Combined with his past concerns, I have major questions about how Piros is going to hold up in this one. We’ve seen plenty of concerns in his most recent events and he’s up to a whopping 58 matches at the professional level so far in 2023, with the season not close to finished.
That isn’t the best position to be in against someone like O’Connell, who has a sneaky serve, strong one-handed backhand when it isn’t being rushed, and a decent resume on the clay courts in his career.
He also has a bit more pedigree at the main tour level and I’d trust him in a position like this more so than I would with Piros.
Chris O’Connell vs Zsombor Piros Best Bet
I can understand why the market is big on the younger player of the two in this one. He’s had a strong year and certainly likes the clay.
I’m just not sure that 1) he’s better than O’Connell at this point and 2) he has much left in the gas tank.
Even at full strength, I’d make the case that O’Connell should be in the 1.80 range and the slightest of favourites, capable of giving Piros fits. With the slew of physical issues that have popped up in recent weeks and months for the Hungarian, however, my numbers make the Aussie a considerable favourite, regardless of where the market is moving this price.
- Selection: O’Connell to win
- Best Odds: 1.88 (Pinnacle)
- Stakes: 5/10
Odds as at 4:00 am UK Time on July 25th, 2023. Odds may now differ.
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