Hanescu – Edmund

Romanian veteran Victor Hanescu takes on Britain’s Kyle Edmund in the second qualifying round at Roland Garros.

Hanescu’s age seems to finally catch up with him and the last year or so was very poor for the Romanian. The highlight of 2015 for him was the second round showing at Indian Wells, beating Youzhny on the way. Even on his beloved clay he didn’t do much this season. However, Hanescu took a couple of weeks to rest before Roland Garros and he defeated Starace in the first round. He did it in three sets, but seemed to be in control of the match from start to finish.

Edmund is having a pretty good season so far and he`s closing in on the Top 100, but clay is far from his favorite surface. He is yet to lay an ATP level match on this surface and is pretty much a non factor on the red dirt. Edmund did reach 3 challenger quarterfinals on clay in the last two months, but he was seeded everytime and met very poor opposition. He lost to Starace, Ramirez Hidalgo and Coppejans – the first two being defeated by Hanescu this season on the red dirt. His best win on clay (by far) was in the first qualifying round here, a 3-6 6-2 6-4 victory over Gerard Melzer.

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The two players never met before on tour, so the Head 2 Head is obviously 0-0. It can’t be said that either of the two holds a matchup advantage, but the surface clearly favors Hanescu, a player that always played his best tennis on clay – as opposed to Edmund, who is a hard court player and his tennis style is not suited for the red dirt.

Hanescu won`t have too many chances to reach a Grand Slam main draw again and this looks like his best opportunity to do so, as the qualifying draw has been reasonably kind to him. Even if Victor is far from his best form, he`s still much better than Edmund on clay. Even in his worst form in the last few months he still managed to defeat two of the players that beat Edmund on the red dirt this season, most notably Starace – who gave Edmund a schooling two weeks ago.

My main concern here is the fact that Edmund is a young, hungry player taking on an aging, slow, Hanescu and the Brit will have speed and agility on his side. But all in all, Hanescu is the better player and I can’t see him losing on clay to a guy like Edmund. He`ll slow down the rhythm, move Edmund left and right, break the rhythm when needed and take advantage of his experience. There`s also the fact that Hanescu served very, very well against Starace, allowing just one break point and that`s always an indicative of his level of play. But today he doesn`t need to play his best tennis, a steady performance like the one against Starace should be more than sufficient. My tip is Victor Hanescu to win, the odds are excellent. Prediction: Victor Hanescu – Kyle Edmund 6-4 3-6 6-4.

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Pick: Hanescu
Odds: 2.10 @ Bet365
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 8.80
Event date: 21 May