Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs Billy Harris Prediction, Stats, Form, H2H, June 20th

Back to the grass court grind on Thursday, as we head to the ATP 500 Cinch Championships for a few previews of second-round action. First, let’s look at Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs Billy Harris in what is likely to be a serve-oriented affair! Our Mpetshi Perricard vs Harris prediction is for Harris to win a fairly close match.

Harris is expected to win less than 40% of the time, with Mpetshi Perricard being the strong favorite, coming in at 1.50 odds. The handicap is two games and the total games line is 25.5.

Mpetshi Perricard vs Harris Prediction: Back Underdog in What Should be Close Match

• Predictions: Harris to win
• Best Odds: 2.63
• Bookmaker: bet365
• Stakes: 2/10

Odds as at 12:00 am UK Time on June 20th, 2024. Odds may now differ.

This time, however, the Frenchman is the favorite, and much like the other day, I can’t have him as either a strong favorite or a large underdog when his game is so suited to close matches and the grass courts only make that even more likely.

Harris has had a fine grass season, has a big serve of his own, plays a very flat style, has experience on the grass as a Brit, and is oddly comfortable playing the lower bounces as a taller player. He’s more than competent and his form has been fine. There’s no reason to have him valued below 40% in this contest.

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Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard Recent Form

I’ll try not to be too similar in how I write up the Frenchman’s excellent start to the grass season, but it’s going to be tough, as he’s added yet another win to his tally and has been pretty impressive for someone so tall and with so little experience on grass courts.

Put it this way, a big serve doesn’t necessarily mean one has an easy path to success on the surface. Just as the man Mpetshi Perricard beat last round in Ben Shelton, who has the game that should be perfect for grass, played a full grass season last year and is more athletic than Mpetshi Perricard, yet still lost in that head-to-head encounter.

Comfort and the ability to get used to the bounce and how to move on grass is incredibly important. With a smaller sample available to us than the other surfaces (by a wide margin, no less), form is probably more important, as it is the best way we can understand which players have the style and comfort for lawn courts and which of them have the game, but still can’t figure it out.

I’m a big fan of Mpetshi Perricard’s dominance on serve on grass courts, but his backhand is a bit weak, he doesn’t move well and just as he can’t be a clear underdog, he simply can’t be a clear favorite for me either.

Billy Harris Recent Form

I alluded to Harris looking just fine so far this grass season earlier, and I think a 7-2 record on the surface heading into this one and a first-round win against a tour-level regular (albeit a clay courter) has more than justified his wild card into the main draw.

He enters Queen’s Club with a pair of semifinal runs in tough Challenger Tour grass fields, losing to Lloyd Harris and countryman Charles Broom, and has that aforementioned win against Tomas Martin Etcheverry under his belt this week as well.

Now, I’m under no illusions that this will be easy or that he should be a favorite. This is likely to see a break, maybe two for the match, and that very well could decide who wins it. I just think that with his form being fine and his game suiting quicker and lower bouncing courts, on top of his opponent being as close to a “servebot” as you’ll find these days, he’s absolutely value at odds of 2.63.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs Billy Harris H2H – Stat of the Match

I’m surprised we haven’t seen these two play one another before. They’ve both been mainstays on the Challenger Tour for the better part of a year or so, and their rankings had been fairly close to each other, meaning you’d expect them to be able to get into similar fields (the Challenger Tour has several different categories of tournaments and the top ones often require a higher ranking).

This is their first meeting though, and I’m interested to see how many total breaks we get to witness in the match.

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