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Current Hertogenbosch tle holder Nicolas Mahut will take on American Steve Johnson in the second round of the Dutch tournament.
Grass court specialist Nicolas Mahut had the best few months of his career exactly one year ago, winning two tournaments in one month on grass (Hertogenbosch, Newport), and he has continued to play at a decent level for his standards since then. However, “decent” might be a big overstatement for his game so far this year and especially for his late form. The frenchman has won consecutive matches in a tournament just one time this year, in February. Mahut will hope that the grass court season will help him regain his best rhythm, but so far it didn’t work out to well: second round exit in London (lost to Roger-Vasselin) and a largely unimpressive victory here in the Hertogenbosch first round, where he needed 3 sets to fend off youngster Coppejans. An analysis of Mahut’s game will reveal a lot of unforced errors and inconsistency over the course of a match.
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Bet with the best odds and highest limits at Pinnacle. |
Steve Johnson is playing the best tennis of his life in 2014, posting some excellent results like challenger wins and finals, also ATP level semifinals and quarterfinals. He defeated guys like Kevin Anderson, Tommy Haas or Feliciano Lopez and is currently on the back of two quarterfinals showings in the Nottingham challenger (lost to Muller) and in Halle (lost to Nishikori). The American is a hard court specialist, but grass suits him very well also. He has a 1-2 win loss record on the green at ATP level and 8-2 at challenger level, so pretty good for his age. Johnson played a solid match in the first round at Hertogenbosch to defeat Kenny De Schepper 7-6 7-5.
This will be the first meeting between the two players. A matchup analysis will tell us that Mahut and Johnson are similar tennis players in terms of in quality and have relatively similar styles of play with strong serves and offensive groundstrokes, but Mahut is of course a little bit more attacking minded and comes more often at the net.
You have to give credit to Mahut on the green, he is arguably the most natural grass court player on the tour, but his form is just not up to standards and Johnson is surely a guy who can take advantage. The american played better tennis lately, was better in the Hertogenbosch first round as well, and he is by no means a mug on this surface. I expect this match to mostly stay on serve, but Johnson should take advantage of Mahut’s unforced errors, at least in tiebreaks if not sooner. There’s little surprise that the odds are dropping on the American and my tip here is Johnson to win. Good value on this bet as I reckon the American is the favorite to prevail. Prediction: Nicolas Mahut – Steve Johnson 6-7 6-3 3-6.
Pick: Johnson
Odds: 2.37 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 9.59
Event date: 18 June
