James Duckworth vs Juan Pablo Ficovich Prediction & Betting Tips - Leon, Mexico

Prediction published on 14/04/2023, 09:45  by Kennedy Kechula in Tennis Predictions

The race to win this season’s Leon Open continues on Saturday with number one seed James Duckworth and eighth seed Juan Pablo Ficovich going up against each other in the quarterfinals. The match will be played on an outdoor hard court and will be the first meeting between the two. Duckworth is making his debut in Leon and arrived ranked 115th in the world. But after winning his opening two rounds, he has moved up to 113th in the live ranking and can move back to his season’s high ranking of 110th with a win here. Duckworth is a former top-50 player with his highest career ranking being 46th. He has been decent with his performances this season and has won 16 of the 26 matches he has played with 15 of those coming on hard courts. The Australian has made it to two finals in 2023 (Burnie and Bengaluru) and will expect to do the same here and go one better.

Despite being the eighth seed, Juan Pablo Ficovich is ranked 116 places below Duckworth. He is also in his debut tournament in Leon and started the week ranked 231st in the world but he has since moved up 11 places to 220 in the live ranking thanks to his two wins here. Before arriving in Leon, the Argentine had won just one match, on clay in Cordoba. His struggles saw him drop out of the top 200 for the first time in a year. Advancing to the semifinals will see him move all the way up to 208th.