Roman Safiullin vs Liam Broady Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP French Open

Prediction published on 24/05/2021, 17:08  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 25/05/2021 at 14:45 in Tennis Predictions

World number 181 Roman Safiullen takes on Liam Broady who's ranked 35 places above him. The Russian is a former Australian junior champion (that was six years ago) but had to go to three sets to make it to this second qualifying round as players bid to win through to the main draw of the French Open. Safiullen lost the first set to Guido Andreozzi but fought back to win the next two for the loss of only five games. The 23-year-old made it through to the Australian Open earlier this year and lost in the second round to Cameron Norrie in four sets. His best performance since then was reaching the last eight of a Challenger tournament in Lugano. Prior to this French Open, he'd played four clay tournaments and lost his first match in each of them but has won three lower levels clay tournaments. 

Liam Broady is the 29th seed in qualifying and beat Jason Jung in straight sets in the first round. That puts him two wins away from reaching the main draw, just as he did last October. He's  been rising the rankings having begun the year 188th in the world and he's now up to 146th. His year got off to a good start winning a Challenger tournament in South Africa, playing seven matches and not dropping a set. It was disappointing therefore that he lost in the first qualifying round of the Australian Open. His form on the Challenger circuit continued to be good though. Another semi-final in South Africa was followed by making it to the final in Italy. The first round of the Miami Masters was reached earning him a fair few ranking points. On clay, Broady made the last 16 in the ATP 250 tournament held in Cagliari. Back on the Challenger circuit, the last four was reached in Belgrade. Back him to get past Safiullen and into the final qualifying round.