Fabio Fognini vs Ilya Ivashka Tennis Prediction
This is the first meeting between these two players. While Fognini has won over 350 matches on clay so far in his career (358/207), Ivashka has won just 15 of them (15/14), and Fognini also has more than 50 match-wins in Masters 1000 events compared to Ivashka’s two (in the qualifiers this week). Though everything points to an Italian victory here, nothing is certain in a match involving Fabio Fognini.
Fabio Fognini News
Fabio Fognini suffered his first Davis Cup defeat in more than 15 months when he lost the fourth and must-win rubber (on clay) to Lucas Pouille earlier this month, 2-6 6-1 7-6 6-3.
The Italian faced first-round exits from Monte Carlo in his recent two visits, losing to Paolo Lorenzi in 2016 and Pablo Carreno Busta in 2017. He once made the semifinal here in 2013 which is his best result in this tournament (nine appearances).
Fognini is currently going through the worst phase of his 2018 season. He made a great start to the year by reaching the semifinal at Sydney (Hard) and Rio de Janeiro (Clay) before winning his sixth career title at Sao Paulo. But since the title win, he has played five matches and lost three of them.
Ilya Ivashka News
After fighting back from a set down to beat Roberto Carballes Baena in the first qualifying match, Ilya Ivashka secured a more comfortable win over Florian Mayer (7-5 6-0) in the final qualifier to book his maiden Monte Carlo main draw berth.
This is the Belarussian’s first-ever appearance in Monte Carlo as well as in an ATP Masters 1000 event.
Earlier in the season, he registered his maiden main draw win on tour by defeating Laslo Djere in Marseille and went onto reach the semifinal that week, all the way from the qualifying stages.
Playing his first clay tournament of the season in Marrakech last week, Ilya Ivashka suffered two defeats in two days, one in the qualifying stages against Pedro Martinez Portero and another one in the main draw as the lucky loser, against the eventual Champion Pablo Andujar.
Tennis Prediction: Fabio Fognini 2-0 SET
Odds: 1.77
