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Local favorite James Ward will take on Thomas Fabbiano in the first round at the ATP 250 event in Eastbourne.
James Ward is back at it again, popping up on the ATP radar during the grass court season, as he did so many times in the past. Although this hasn`t been the case in the last few years, now the 205th ranked Ward is looking good on his beloved green again. After a horrible start to the season, Ward started having some results in late April, and on grass he has been solid for his standards. He reached the 3rd round at the Surbiton challenger, qualified for the main draw at Queens, and qualified again for the main draw here in Eastbourne. He defeated guys like Stakhovsky, Kudla or Karlovic in the past few weeks on grass, and pushed Simon to a deciding set tiebreak last week in Queens (Simon going on to reach the final).
Fabbiano is not a grass court specialist, but he did have a couple of great results on the green in the past two years, most notably reaching the third round at Wimbledon last season. However, this year he is not playing well on grass. Fabbiano has been in poor form for some time, and it continued on this surface. He won 3 out of 6 matches, but all against very poor opposition. He qualified for the main draw here in Eastbourne after defeating De Schepper in three sets (De Schepper lost 13 matches in a row!) and Londero in two tight sets (Londero being an absolute non factor on grass).
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Fabbiano can be very solid on grass on his day, but overall you have to feel that the surface represents an advantage for Ward, who is a grass court specialist.
Ward has been pretty good this season on grass, he beat a couple of really solid players, and he looked very sharp here in the Eastbourne qualifiers against good opponents like Harris or Kudla. And this is coming after almost beating an in form Simon last week in Queens. His level seems to be increasing match by match, and surely Ward will feel this is a golden chance for him to advance to the second round of an ATP tournament in front of his fans.
Fabbiano hasn`t really shown anything in the last few weeks on grass, and he hasn`t been playing well for some time. He got past qualifications in Eastbourne, but really struggled against very poor level of opposition. He couldn`t asked for a better draw than De Schepper and Londero, and still didn`t have it easy.
I`m going to trust James Ward to deliver here on the green, as he did many times in the past, especially considering that his opponent is not looking good.
My tip will be James Ward to win, and I trust my analysis enough to go with 8 units out of 10 on this bet. Prediction: James Ward – Thomas Fabbiano 7-6 6-3.
Pick: Ward
Odds: 1.69 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 5.52
Event date: 25 June
