Frances Tiafoe vs Denis Shapovalov Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Finals

Prediction published on 18/06/2021, 07:54  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 18/06/2021 at 09:16 in Tennis Predictions

Denis Shapovalov is the second seed for the cinch championship taking place in London this week. He takes on unseeded American Francis Tiafoe for a place in the semi-finals. The winner of this match will face either Cameron Norrie or Jack Draper for a place in the final. Shapovalov began this week ranked 14th in the world but down in 27th when it comes to ranking points earned in 2021. The Canadian has already lost 12 matches this year but did make it to the final of a clay court tournament held in Geneva, losing to Casper Ruud. Five years ago, Shapovalov beat Alex de Minaur in the boys' singles final at Wimbledon and they could meet again in the final of this tournament. Shapovalov hasn't done so well in the senior event at Wimbledon winning only one match in three appearances. This week has seen him defeat Aleksandar Vukic in round one, both sets going to a tie-break. That took him through to a match against the defending champion Feliciano Lopez and he won that for the loss of just five games.

Tiafoe is the world number 65 and rose nine places in the latest rankings. The reason for that being the fact he won the grass court tournament held in Nottingham last week. He beat Denis Kudla in the final but it was a Challenger event and no top 100 player was beaten. That was his first grass court title. Before that this year, he'd only made one last eight and that was in Australia in his first tournament of the year. He did take a set off Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open and beat both Dusan Lajovic and Daniel Evans in Miami. His best performance at Wimbledon is a third round in 2018 losing to Karen Khachanov after taking a two-set lead. This week in London he's beaten Aljaz Bedene (first set lost) and Viktor Troicki. This is his fourth match against Shapovalov and only one has been won. That was their first meeting in 2018, the most recent in Shanghai two years ago. Shapovalov can be backed to win this, have a side bet on it going to three sets and a tie-break.