Laaksonen v Cecchinato
The market isn’t showing a lot of love for Henri Laaksonen in this one, but I’d definitely prefer to be with the Swiss than the Italian in this one, so I'm going to fight it.
Cecchinato has a huge bias for clay and always seems to struggle on anything else. 321 of his 358 career wins have come on clay. To break down his results by surface reads 321-184 (Clay), 22-40 (Hard), 13-19 (Indoors), 2-7 (Grass). Looking only at top 100 opponents, he is just 4-19 on Hard, 0-5 Indoors and 1-5 on Grass.
If you’re looking for form, Cecchinato has now lost 11 of his last 12 matches – dating back to early May, so confidence must be at an all-time low.
Laaksonen of course is also best known for his clay performances, but did win a hard court event in Bangkok earlier in the year. Whilst it was a Challenger event, facing Thiemo de Bakker, Go Soeda, James Duckworth and Dudi Sela showed it was no gimme. He has a career 80-68 hard court record.
At 6/4 Laaksonen is worth a few quid to upset the odds in this one.
2pts Laaksonen to beat Ceccinhato at 6/4 (General)