Gilles Simon vs Pedro Sousa Tennis Prediction
In this first match between Sousa and Simon, the Portuguese and world #118 has got a decent chance of getting a result (provided he is fit) considering Simon did not look to be in his best condition in the recent matches (was broken over 20 times in the last five matches).
Gilles Simon News
Gilles Simon suffered his second consecutive second-round defeat when he lost to Grigor Dimitrov at Barcelona last week, 2-6 1-6. Prior to that, he lost his second round match at Monte Carlo in the similar scoreline against Karen Khachanov, 2-6 2-6.
Though Gilles Simon is struggling to produce decent results since winning the title at Pune in the first week of January, he managed to win at least one match in the recent three tournaments, at Marrakech, Monte Carlo and Barcelona, all on clay.
After progressing to the quarterfinal of Estoril on his debut appearance in 2016, the Frenchman opted to take a break during this period of the calendar in 2017.
The last time Simon faced a local player in the first round (except a French opponent in France) was Yibing Wu at the Shanghai Masters in 2017 when he secured a comfortable straight sets win, 6-3 6-4.
Pedro Sousa News
Pedro Sousa’s progression was constantly held back by consistent fitness issues. His recent retirement at the Tunis Challenger two weeks back (his last match) was his second retirement of the season and sixth in the last 14 months.
Nevertheless, the Portuguese is a solid clay court player who posted some impressive results over the years such as 82 wins in 2016 (82/25), which includes six ITF titles on clay. He followed it up by winning three Challenger titles (all on clay) in 2017 despite retiring four times during the course of the season.
Sousa ended his four-match losing run by winning two matches at Tunis Challenger earlier this month but was forced to retire during his quarterfinal match against compatriot Joao Domingues. It is to be seen if he is fully recovered which makes a big difference as a fully fit Sousa can be a tough opponent for any player, especially on this surface.
Tennis Prediction: Gilles Simon
Odds: 1.40
