Nicole Fossa Huergo vs Despina Papamichail Prediction, Stats, Form, H2H, 12/5/24

After several days previewing matches from Dubai and Angers, I’m going to head down to the WTA 125K tournament in Florianopolis, Brazil for Thursday’s writeups. Let’s begin with Nicole Fossa Huergo vs Despina Papamichail from the MundoTenis Open.

Papamichail’s odds would indicate the markets expect her to win about 45% of the time, while Fossa Huergo is favoured to win at 1.63 odds. The handicap is 2.5 games and the total games line is 21.5.

Jon Reid’s Fossa Huergo vs Papamichail prediction is for Fossa Huergo to cover the handicap.

Nicole Fossa Huergo vs Despina Papamichail Prediction: Trust True Clay Courter in Florianopolis

• Prediction: Fossa Huergo -2.5 Games
• Best Odds: 1.92
• Bookmaker: Unibet
• Stakes: 3/10

Odds as at 12:30 am UK Time on December 5th, 2024. Odds may now differ.

This handicap isn’t going to be a complicated one. I love opposing Papamichail on clay courts. It’s odd, because her relatively powerless style and defensive approach to the sport is normally something that is rewarded on the red dirt, but she’s simply never been all that strong on the red stuff, despite having played on it plenty in her career.

Now, the clay record also includes some green clay matches in the United States, but that is a bit more forgiving to a player who has had a bit more success on hard courts.

Without any weapons to speak of and coming off a long match, I’m happy to back her opponent. I didn’t know too much about Fossa Huergo until the last few weeks, but her game has grown on me. Her forehand can miss by incredibly wide margins a bit too often, but she’s certainly got the topspin game, the comfort and the ability to stick in longer rallies to beat someone like Papamichail.

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Nicole Fossa Huergo Recent Form

Talk about a clay court specialist. The Italian has spent a lot of time this season on red clay at the ITF level, building up her ranking. In fact, she’s played 89 of her 94 professional tour matches on the surface to this point.

Heading into Thursday, she’s amassed an impressive 60 wins on the clay, with several deep runs on home soil positioning her well to make the jump to the WTA 125K level at the end of the season in South America.

Now into her third week on the continent, she has the chance to reach a quarterfinal and push her already-career-high ranking of No. 264 (in the live rankings) another 10 or so spots.

She has a decent forehand, plays with plenty of spin and her serve is protected well enough to stick around at this level.

Against tougher opposition I’d be wary of backing her, but against someone like Papamichail, I have no issue giving up a 2.5-game head start. She’s 3.5 games better in my books.

Despina Papamichail Recent Form

There were a few wins at the start of the year for Papamichail, who decided to drop down and play low-end ITF tournaments in Cyprus and Spain, but since winning in Larnaca and reaching the semis in Terrassa back in March, Papamichail’s record at red clay events is just 10-13, including her first round win against an out of form Argentine (that she needed three sets to get done).

There is no serve, power, or offensive prowess to her game at all. She doesn’t play with a lot of topspin and in this matchup it feels like she’ll be almost entirely reliant on mistakes from Fossa Huergo on the other side of the net to pull off the upset.

That is certainly a possibility, but giving up just 2.5 games to oppose her on the dirt is too good to pass up.

Nicole Fossa Huergo vs Despina Papamichail H2H – Stat of the Match

This is the first meeting between Fossa Huergo and her Greek counterpart at the professional level.

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