Yuichi Sugita vs Marius Copil Tennis Prediction
Yuichi Sugita must be a relieved man after snapping his ten-match losing run with a straight-set win over Nikoloz Basilashvili on Monday, 6-3 6-2. It was the Japanese’s first win since defeating Jan Lennard Struff at ATP Dubai in February 2018.
With the win over Nikoloz Basilashvili, Yuichi Sugita also registered his best result in Hertogenbosch as he failed in the first round here in 2017, losing to Janko Tipsarevic in three sets, 6-7 6-3 0-6.
The former world #36 Sugita has entered 17 tournaments so far in 2018, but only once he managed to win back-to-back matches, against Ilya Ivashka and Jan Lennard Struff in Dubai.
Yuichi Sugita has got a good number of points to defend in the coming weeks as he had his career-best grass season in 2017 by notching up an impressive 12 wins (12/4) and two titles, ATP Antalya and Surbiton Challenger.
Marius Copil, who lost to Aljaz Bedene in the first round of ATP Budapest in April 2018 (7-6 5-7 3-6), reversed the result with almost a similar scoreline in the first round of ATP Hertogenbosch on Monday, 6-7 7-6 6-3.
In his previous three appearances at this tournament, Copil has managed to progressively improve his result, failed in the qualifying stages in 2008, reached the round of 16 in 2013 and quarterfinal in 2015.
Though the Romanian is going through a rough patch at the moment and finished the clay season with four straight losses, he will see this as a good period to get some wins, having gone 6/3 on this surface in 2017 and 9/3 in 2016.
Marius Copil leads the H2H 2-1, but Yuichi Sugita won their recent meeting which came on the grass courts of Surbiton Challenger in 2017. Though their recent form is not good, they have done well on grass in the past two seasons and will be fairly confident going into this evenly poised second round encounter.
Tennis Prediction: Marius Copil
Odds: 1.80
