Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs Frances Tiafoe Prediction: Etcheverry is a clay-specialist, will elite Frances survive?

The Professional scenery is constantly trending towards the French Open and the Clay Court is going to take center stage. We are in a phase where players test it out in a tournament that prepares them for the Roland Garros tourney(French Open). In this clay court affair, Tomas Martin Etcheverry takes on Frances Tiafoe.

Tomas enter the Round of 64 after defeating Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-0. Tomas nailed four Aces and his return game was superb too as he eked out a 26-8 receiving points advantage. Meanwhile, he had a service points advantage of 31-24. During Barcelona Open, he did make it past the first round but lost to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round. He did make it to the Final of ATP Houston, losing to Frances Tiafoe, however, the tournament didn’t have many top-ranked players. He is currently ranked 59 and this is the best ranking of his career.

Tiafoe comes into the tournament after losing in the first round against Emil Ruusuvuori. He withdrew from Monte Carlo Masters. He won the thinned-down ATP Houston by beating Tomas Martin Etchverry. He lost to Lorenzo Sonego in the Second Round of Miami Open. He did make an impressive run during Indian Wells Masters, beating Cameron Norrie in the Quarter-Final but lost to Daanil Medvedev in the Semi-Final. During his last Grand Slam, the Australian Open, he was beaten in the third round by Karen Khachanov. Tiafoe has hit peak ranking but to maintain it, he will need deeper runs.

Tiafoe and Etchverry have met once which was during the ATP Houston when Tiafoe won in two sets but it was a tough win.

Tomas did a great job of pushing Frances to his limits in the last game and will fancy his chances here. Frances has historically struggled on clay courts, owing to his game style but he has improved over the years. Tomas usually plays on clay courts and he has been in brilliant touch, as a matter of fact, he has played 70%+ matches on this surface. I fancy his chances and he may sneak one out.