Yannick Hanfmann vs Tommy Paul Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Houston

Prediction published on 05/04/2023, 03:50  by Daniel Ngulu | Modified on 05/04/2023 at 07:54 in Tennis Predictions

Second seed Tommy Paul will begin his 2023 US Men’s Clay Court Championship campaign on Thursday with a second-round match against the qualifier Yannick Hanfmann. The match will be played on an outdoor hard court and will see the winner advance to play either seventh seed Marcos Giron or the qualifier Tomas Machac in the quarterfinals. Hanfmann is making his debut in Houston and has looked impressive so far. He won both his qualifiers without dropping a set and withstood the challenge of fellow qualifier Yosuke Watanuki to win in three sets in the first round. The German arrived in Houston ranked 134th in the world but his three wins have catapulted him up seven places to 127th in the live ranking. He has played a majority of his matches this season on clay where he has a 10-5 record and having defeated Paul on the surface already, he will fancy his chances of advancing even more.

Tommy Paul is making his fourth appearance in Houston and third in the main draw and in all, he has never been able to progress past the second round. He will hope his superb start to the season, which has seen him win 15 of the 21 matches he has played thus far, continues with another win here. The American has however not played on clay this year and could find the going tough against Hanfmann who is already conditioned to the surface. After a slow start to the year, Paul blasted up the world rankings and broke into the top 20 for the first time in his career thanks to his memorable performance at the Australian Open. Having never gone past the third round at the major, Paul surged to the semifinals for the first time in his Grand Slam career to move up to 18th in the world. He followed that up by going one better in Acapulco but lost in the final. This will be the third match between the two who have the record split at one win each.