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Horse Racing Wednesday Tennis Best Bet: ATP French Open, Cam Norrie vs Lucas Pouille
Cam Norrie vs Lucas Pouille Best Bet: Wednesday, May 31st
Quentin Halys couldn’t overcome a slow start and ended up losing in five sets. Thanks to a 6-2 third set, he actually had a chance to cover the -4.5-game handicap though.
For Wednesday, let’s take a look at the second-round matchup between Cam Norrie and Lucas Pouille.
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Cam Norrie vs Lucas Pouille Preview
May 31st, 15:00 (UK Time)
From one veteran Frenchman coming in with no expectations and a story the French crowd rallies behind to another.
Pouille has had some tough times the last year or so, but it’s good to see him back to playing some strong tennis. He has a fairly underrated serve and forehand combination, can get around the court and doesn’t have many holes to his game. There’s a reason he can play across surfaces and was once a top-10 player.
He came through the qualifying draw in impressive fashion against decent competition and beat Jurij Rodionov a second time in the opening round, after taking him out in the final round of qualifying.
He’s better than Norrie’s last opponent in Benoit Paire when his game is on, simply because his forehand is leaps and bounds better and he moves more efficiently.
As for the Brit, Norrie has a glaring weakness on clay in his backhand and lacks the ability to create offence. That makes him the prime candidate to oppose with talented underdogs, because when they’re on, they can take it to him and there’s not a whole lot he can do to push back, other than hope his opponent’s level tails off.
Finally, if Pouille’s headspace has gone from really poor to being in a good place, watch out. The game has always been there, and once he gets that sorted (credit to him for being so open about his struggles over the last year or so), he can be dangerous and quickly vault up the rankings.
The French crowd – which has been raucous at his matches since his qualifying campaign – should help with that and keep him in an upbeat mood with nothing to lose.
Cam Norrie vs Lucas Pouille Best Bet
Much like the aforementioned Paire, we’re seeing an incredible undervaluation on a French player due to form that seems to indicate some sort of career downturn.
That may be the case, but the last several days have shown that Pouille still has the game to compete at tour level.
He isn’t as cheap to back as Paire was, but he’s also a more complete player, so you’d expect to have slightly lower odds.I backed Paire to win a set and pull off the upset and he was just two games away in the deciding set from actually getting it done. I’ll gladly back Pouille to finish the job on Wednesday.
- Selection: Pouille to win
- Best Odds: 4.00 (Bet365)
- Stakes: 2/10
Odds as at 4:00 am UK Time on May 30th, 2023. Odds may now differ.
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