Sandgren – Mannarino

Local favorite Tennys Sandgren will take on Adrian Mannarino on Wednesday, in the second round at the Hall Of Fame Tennis CHampionships in Newport.

Sandgren had a pretty good year for his standards, particularly in the first part of the season on the American hard courts. He won his first ATP title in Auckland back in January, and had a few other good results at challenger level. Sandgren was never a fan of grass court tennis, and indeed he didn`t do much this year either on the surface before Wimbledon. However, he managed to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon, defeating Uchiyama, Simon and Fognini before losing to Querrey. Here in Newport, Sangren got past an out of form Istomin in three tight sets in the opening round.

Mannarino also won the first title of his career this season, and it was long time coming after 6 lost finals. An excellent grass court player, Mannarino finally broke the bad luck in finals to win the Hertogenbosch title last month, claiming some excellent wins over guys like Coric or Goffin. The win probably took a bit out of him mentally, as he won just one more match in his next two tournaments at Antalya and Wimbledon. This will be his first match this week in Newport, as he had a bye in the first round.

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Mannarino leads the H2H 1-0, winning on hard courts earlier this year at Indian Wells – a pretty straightforward 6-2 6-7 6-1 victory. He`s the much better grass court player between the two, and he`s also a Newport veteran, as opposed to Sandgren – and that matters a lot at this special tournament, which has a different feel, a faster grass and a lower bounce.

Mannarino reached the quarterfinals in 3 of his last 4 appearances here. His versatile game fits Newport and he always played well on these courts. It`s fair to say that he was unlucky not to reach the semifinals at least once, as he had a couple of close losses in the quarters.

Meanwhile for Sandgren this is only the second appearance at Newport (lost in the first round in 2017), which already suggests he doesn`t like it here very much. Normally you would have expected him to play more in this tournament given that it`s in US, and that over the years it was one of the few ATP tournaments in which he could have entered on the main draw.

Sandgren’s win over Istomin in the first round was shaky to say the least. Sandgren struggled against an out of form opponent, and even seemed frustrated at times with the way the ball bounces on the Newport surface.

In these circumstances, you would expect the American to struggle even more with the bounces against Mannarino, a guy who knows how to manage this grass, who has a bit of an unorthodox style, and who varies his shots and spins a lot. This should put big pressure on Sandgren.

It remains to be seen if Sandgren`s surprising result at Wimbledon will translate into better performances on grass from now on, but fact is he did not play very well at all in the first round here, and it appears Newport is not exactly his best tournament. Mannarino is a veteran here and he probably shook off that hangover from his title run in Hertogenbosch by now.

If Mannarino finds his optimal level of play, he could be set for a deep run this year at Newport. He should be able to outmatch and outplay Sandgren on this surface to get a good start. It really seems like the surface and the matchup are in his favor. Prediction: Tennys Sandgren – Adrian Mannarino 2-6 6-7.

Pick: Mannarino
Odds: 1.71 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 6.39
Event date: 17 July