Ben Shelton vs Bernabe Zapata Miralles Prediction & Betting Tips - Toronto, Canada

Prediction published on 07/08/2023, 10:11  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 08/08/2023 at 11:56 in ATP Toronto Predictions

Ben Shelton takes on Bernabe Zapata Miralles in the first round of the National Bank Open in Toronto. There's a tough draw ahead for the winner of this match with top seed Carlos Alcaraz the scheduled opponent. Shelton began this outdoor hard court event ranked 41st in the world. That's six places below his career high achieved in May of this year. 2023 began well for the 20-year-old with a run to the last eight of the Australian Open. He hasn't really built on that good performance and lost eight of his next 11 matches. Back on the Challenger Tour, he got to the last four in a clay court event held in Cagliari, Italy. His return to the ATP Tour hasn't gone well with a series of defeats. 18 of his 28 ATP Tour matches have been lost and last week saw him beaten in his first match in Washington by then world number 149 Juncheng Shang.

Miralles is ranked 64th but has also had an inconsistent year with 16 wins and 19 losses on the ATP Tour. The Spaniard was a career high 37th three months ago This is is his first tournament since July when losing to Andrey Rublev on clay. That is his best surface and in April he got to the last 16 in Madrid. Since then though his only real success has been making it to the final of a Challenger Tour clay event held in Romania where he again lost to a player ranked outside the top 100. A win for Miralles in this match would be his first on a hard court this year after five successive defeats. Only two of his last 13 matches on outdoor hard courts have been won. We back Shelton to get the win but with Alcaraz in the next round, he's not going to get too far in Toronto.