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Big serving australian Samuel Groth will take on Malek Jaziri of Tunisia in the 2nd round at Newport after both players recorded comfortable wins in their opening matches.
Groth backed up his good grass court form this year with a solid 7-6 6-2 victory over Donald Young in the first round. Even though Young played pathetic tennis and arguably beat himself, Groth still deserves credit for the win and for taking advantage of Young’s inconsistency. Sam is one of the biggest servers on tour, actually holding the unofficial record for the fastest serve ever (263 km/h), and he was flawless on serve against Young. The last month was probably the best of Groth’s career, as he reached the semifinals of Roland Garros in doubles and played some good matches on grass against the likes of Gilles Muller (won), Aleksandr Dolgopolov or Nick Kyrgios.
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Jaziri had a similar match to Groth’s in the first round, meeting a talented but inconsistent player in the form of Ricardas Berankis. Jaziri did very well to capitalize of Berankis’ errors, he did not concede a single break and won comfortably 7-5 6-3. The Tunisian is not exactly a grass court specialist but he can play on the surface and put on a solid performance against Monfils in the Wimbledon 1st round, losing a tight 3 setter.
The H2H is 1-0 for Jaziri, the only meeting was in 2012 on hard, with the Tunisian winning in 2 sets. A matchup analysis does not reveal any advantages for either player, the match will go on serve and tiebreaks are likely to decide the winner. Groth is a little bit more suited to grass.
I can see Jaziri in with a chance to win this, or at least keep it very close. Groth is just now starting to play some decent and consistent tennis and he just can’t be given odds of 1.40 against a decent opponent like Jaziri. Indeed, Sam’s serve gives him an edge, he won more matches on grass than Jaziri this year, but his movement is a disaster, his return is dreadful and I don`t see him getting too many opportunities to break a player that has been really solid on serve himself lately. Jaziri is in ok form, playing good tennis for this level and he should at least push this into 2 tiebreaks, but he can also win it if Groth has the slightest hesitation on serve. My tip is Jaziri +2,5 game handicap. Prediction: Samuel Groth – Malek Jaziri 7-6 6-7 7-6.
Pick: Jaziri (+2,5 game handicap)
Odds: 1.80 @ Unibet
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 5.60
Event date: 9 July
