Matteo Arnaldi vs Diego Sebastián Schwartzman Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Italian Open

Prediction published on 10/05/2023, 08:10  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 11/05/2023 at 05:00 in Tennis Predictions

Wild card Matteo Arnaldi faces struggling Diego Schwartzman in the first round of the Rome Masters. If Arnaldi wins, he'll face fellow Italian and 18th seeded Lorenzo Musetti in the second round. Arnaldi began this outdoor clay court tournament ranked 99th in the world. He's down to 105th in the live list though as he's defending the points earned last year when losing in the last 64. Arnaldi has spent most of this year playing on the Challenger Tour and has had some success. He won a hard court tournament in Tenerife and then won another last month. The second title was more significant as it was a clay court tournament held in Murcia, Spain. His last tournament was the Madrid Masters where he qualified for the main draw and won his first round match before then losing to Daniel Evans.

Diego Schwartzman is looking to get a confidence boost ahead of Roland Garros. He's been slipping down the rankings this year and began this Rome Masters in 91st place. He was 15th this time last year and 25th when this year began. The 30-year-old has played 17 matches on the ATP Tour this year and won just five of them. He has had some good results in the past on clay but this year has been a real struggle for him. In South America, he played four clay court tournaments and didn't win a match and the highest ranked player he met was in 74th position. In Europe he's won just two out of six games and even lost his first match in a Challenger Tour. There seems to be no answer to his problems at present, so back Arnaldi to get the win.