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Mixed martial arts Juan Pablo Ficovich vs Pedro Sakamoto Aberto da Republica Expert Tip: Argentine More Adept on Surface and in Altitude
Juan Pablo Ficovich vs Pedro Sakamoto (Aberto da Republica): Wednesday, November 22nd
A nice win for Tristan Boyer in straight sets for Tuesday’s preview. We’ll stick with the Aberto da Republica for Wednesday’s ATP Challenger Tour preview and look at Juan Pablo Ficovich vs Pedro Sakamoto.
For more daily tennis tips, visit the bettingexpert community, but if you want more expert tips from Jon Reid, visit our Expert Insights section.
In this article:
- Juan Pablo Ficovich vs Pedro Sakamoto Expert Tip
- Juan Pablo Ficovich Recent Form
- Pedro Sakamoto Recent Form
- Juan Pablo Ficovich vs Pedro Sakamoto H2H Stat of the Match
- Gamble Responsibly
Juan Pablo Ficovich vs Pedro Sakamoto Expert Tip
Odds as at 3:00 am UK Time on November 22nd, 2023. Odds may now differ.
Hard for me to believe this one is priced as closely as it is. While both of these men surely prefer clay court tennis, Ficovich has played far more away from clay courts this season, has done more in his career and has proven himself more in altitude at this level in his career.
I’m not sure he should be given credit as a dominant favourite, but I will say that this price giving Sakamoto almost as good a chance to win the match as him is a bit much.
Give me the Argentine in this tilt.
Read on for more Expert Insights.
Juan Pablo Ficovich Recent Form
It’s been a rough stretch of tournaments the last little while for Ficovich. The results haven’t been there, but it’s more the quality of competition he’s drawn in the opening rounds of tournaments that makes it particularly tough.
Guido Andreozzi is a tough draw in altitude (as we touched on yesterday), Luciano Darderi and Dalibor Svrcina are two really talented youngsters that are at home on clay courts and Federico Coria is probably one of the two or three best players you’re going to find playing late-season clay Challenger tournaments.
Yet he still managed to snag a set off several of those players.
In fact, his best two results of the season came in Leon, Mexico and Pozoblanco, Spain. The common theme with those two hard-court tournaments? Played at altitude.
He’s now back into those same conditions and in a tournament with far less firepower in terms of the opposition.
Sakamoto falls into that category, considering how few hard court matches he’s played this season and much lower his current and career-high rankings are than many of the players I listed above that Ficovich has struggled with.
Pedro Sakamoto Recent Form
The Challenger Tour is a level Sakamoto has really struggled to excel at in his career. It’s why he’s currently outside of the world’s top-350 and has a career high ranking of 284.
His game doesn’t have much to it and he has as little surface versatility as anyone out there, making it really tough to consistently rack up enough points to improve his ranking.
This week marks the first time he’s played on the professional circuit since 2021. His qualifying wins? Against fellow underpowered ITF clay courter Juan Pablo Paz (by a one break of serve margin) and Gabriel Decamps (in a third set tiebreak).
Nothing about that inspires confidence that he’s going to go on any kind of serious run in the main draw.
Sakamoto’s best results on clay do tend to come at altitude, which would track with a consistent game that requires the thinner air to play up, but that’s about the only positive I can find in his track record and the fact he’s poor on the surface nullifies any confidence one would gain from trusting him in altitude.
Juan Pablo Ficovich vs Pedro Sakamoto H2H – Stat of the Match
They have met four times in the past, but I caution people regularly against using the head-to-head record to influence their handicap without applying context.
In this matchup, they’ve never played on hard courts professionally and only one of the four contests have taken place since the start of the 2021 season (a Ficovich win earlier this year).
As far as I can tell, the head-to-head matches are the only things that are keeping the price relatively close. With how little relevance the majority of those matches holds, I’d look to capitalise with Ficovich.
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