Luca Nardi vs Henri Laaksonen Prediction & Betting Tips - Koblenz, Germany

Prediction published on 29/01/2023, 15:06  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 29/01/2023 at 16:53 in Tennis Predictions

Luca Nardi takes on Henri Laaksonen in the first round of the hard court Koblenz Open. Neither player is seeded for this Challenger Tour event. The winner of this match will face either eighth seeded Giys Brouwer or Raphael Collignon in round two. Nardi is 165th in the live rankings and is playing in his third tournament of the new year. The Italian reached the last 16 of the Challenger Tour event held in Canberra at the start of this month. His Australian Open campaign didn't last long with a straight sets loss to Ernesto Escobedo in the first qualifying round, winning just four games. He'll want to return to the form that saw him win three Challenger Tour tournaments last year, all won on a hard court. 

Henri Laaksonen has a career high ranking of 84th achieved last year. He's down to 194th in the live rankings  He played the two same tournaments this year as his opponent. In Canberra, 2023 got off to a poor start when being beaten by Mitchell Kreuger who was ranked 214th at the time. Laaksonen got his only win of the year so far in the first round of the Australian Open qualifying tournament. The Swiss player beat Riccardo Bonadio but then lost in straight sets to Pavel Kotov. Last week saw him beaten by Ricardas Berankis in straight sets. Laakonsen reached a  couple of Challenger tour finals last October and November. One of them saw him retire from the match when his opponent had match point. 2022 wasn't a great year for Laaksonen though and at one stage lost six matches in a row.