Yosuke Watanuki vs Cameron Norrie Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Mutua Madrid Open

Prediction published on 29/04/2023, 02:39  by Daniel Ngulu | Modified on 29/04/2023 at 09:13 in Tennis Predictions

Eleventh seed Cameron Norrie will on Saturday begin his Mutua Madrid Open tournament with a second-round battle with the qualifier Yosuke Watanuki. Watanuki is on his debut tournament in Madrid and so far all is good for the Japanese number two. He has won the three matches he has played from the qualifying rounds and has only dropped one set. Watanuki defeated the unseeded Corentin Moutet in straight sets in the first round. This run has seen him move up seven places to 110th in the live ranking. The 25-year-old is enjoying his season so far and has won 18 of the 25 matches he has played with five of those victories coming on clay. He has had several highlights along the way with the first being his semifinal finish in Canberra in his first tournament of the season. He followed that up by qualifying for the main draw of a Grand Slam in his debut at the Australian Open. He also qualified for his first Master 1000 tournament with the Miami Open where he was eliminated in the second round by Frances Tiafoe. He will hope to continue with this momentum and set a new personal record in Madrid.

Cameron Norrie started the season in fine form but he has since regressed and arrives for his second-ever appearance in Madrid in woeful form. The Briton has lost four of his last five matches and needs to hit the ground running if he is to offset the challenge of Watanuki and better last season’s third-round finish. In his first tournament of the year, Norrie has played in three tournament finals this season; Auckland, Buenos Aires and Rio and won the latter in only his second appearance at the tournament. But since then he has been unable to ride that momentum and has won just four of the eight matches he has played. This has seen him drop in the world ranking and now prepares to serve off here ranked 13th in the live standings. Norrie and Watanuki have never met before in their careers and the winner of this first meeting will advance to the third round to face off with 21st seed Denis Shapovalov or the unseeded Zhang Zhizhen.