Will Altmaier continue his clay court season?
With the end of the French Open, the clay court season of the ATP Tour also comes to an end. Before the US Open Series starts in mid-July, however, the comparatively short grass-court season is still to come. Six ATP tournaments will be played over the next three weeks before the Wimbledon Championships start at the beginning of July. One of the venues is the Weissenhof Tennis Club in Stuttgart. In this article on the first round match of the BOSS Open 2023 between Christopher O’Connell and Daniel Altmaier, we give a tip on the outcome of the match.
Local hero Daniel Altmaier, who just reached the third round at the French Open, would love to make a splash at Wimbledon as well. Although the player from Kempen is more of a classic clay court player, he also has a 40% win rate on grass on the ATP Tour. This compares to his Australian opponent, who has never won a match on grass on the ATP Tour. Consequently, our prediction for Christopher O’Connell against Daniel Altmaier goes to the German player.
Of course, one should not write off the Australian prematurely, who has won eleven of his 23 matches on the ATP Tour this year. This means that the 29-year-old has won half of his victories on the ATP Tour in the 2023 season, which was also rewarded with a corresponding jump in the ranking. All in all, however, there is a lot to be said for Daniel Altmaier, who will certainly have the audience on his side, winning the race.
We recommend a straightforward win bet on the German in the classic two-way system
Christopher O’Connell – Statistics & current form
Current world ranking: 74
Position in the seedings: unseeded
The 29-year-old Australian Christopher O’Connell has not yet achieved too much in his career on the ATP Tour. The player from Sydney has played a total of just 59 singles matches in the main competition of the most important players’ association in men’s tennis.
The Australian has won only 22 of these 59 singles matches, with half of all matches won on the ATP Tour dating back to the current year. A slight upswing is consequently evident.
Never won a grass court singles match on the ATP Tour before
However, Christopher O’Connell has also already lost 12 singles matches on the ATP Tour in the 2023 season and is still waiting to win a rated singles match on the grass court for the very first time in his career.
In his only appearance at the Wimbledon Championships in 2021, the 29-year-old sniffed a surprise in the first round against the highly favoured Gael Monfils for a long time, but was defeated 3-2 in a thrilling match over five sets in the end.
Once again in 2023 with strong run in Germany
Last week, the Australian was already trying to get into the groove on grass on the ATP Challenger Tour. The result was a 1-2 loss to Denis Kudla (ATP 139) in his opening match at a small Challenger tournament in Surbiton, Great Britain, proving once again that this surface does not suit him very well.
It is therefore all the more surprising that in the run-up to the duel between Christopher O’Connell and Daniel Altmaier, the odds are swinging in the direction of the player from Down Under, who, however, already caused a surprise in Germany in 2023. At the clay-court tournament in Munich in April, he beat Alexander Zverev 2-0 and was only beaten 2-0 in the semifinals by Holger Runde from Denmark.
Daniel Altmaier – Statistics & current form
Current ranking in the world rankings: 59
Position in the seedings: unseeded
In fact, the 24-year-old German Daniel Altmaier has won “only” seven of his 18 completed singles matches on the ATP Tour in 2023. The player from Kempen also mainly plays on the ATP Challenger Tour and at tournaments on the ITF Future Tour.
Recently, however, Alberto Mancini’s protégé has been in the headlines several times. At the Madrid Open, Altmaier achieved the feat of reaching the quarter-finals as a lucky loser who had actually failed to qualify. Most recently, he also reached the third round of the French Open.
Will Altmaier continue his strong clay court season?
Thanks to these two spectacular runs on the clay court season, the player from Kempen climbed back up to 59th place in the ATP world rankings. Accordingly, the starting position is good for Daniel Altmaier to be in the mix again at the Wimbledon Championships. It would be the seventh consecutive participation in the main draw of a Grand Slam for the 24-year-old.
Now, however, the 1.88-metre tall German must first get off to a good start in the grass court season. That is not exactly easy for the accomplished clay court player. After all, it is incredibly difficult on the fast grass to get into the return game against strong servers.
40% of all grass court singles wins on the ATP Tour
But because his Australian first-round opponent doesn’t exactly have the strongest serve on the ATP Tour, our tip is for Christopher O’Connell to advance against Daniel Altmaier, who has also been much more convincing on grass so far.
The German also lost 0:3 to Mikael Ymer in the first round on his debut at the Wimbledon Championships a year ago. Overall, however, Daniel Altmaier has four victories from ten rated singles matches on grass on the ATP Tour – and thus a win rate of 40% on this complicated surface.
Christopher O’Connell – Daniel Altmaier Direct comparison / H2H-balance
Head to head: 0:0
Never before have both players faced each other in a rated singles match on the ATP Tour. Consequently, there is no “head-to-head” data available that could be used in the forecast for Christopher O’Connell against Daniel Altmaier.
Christopher O’Connell – Daniel Altmaier Tip
With Christopher O’Connell against Daniel Altmaier, our prediction goes for a win for the German local hero, who has already played big at the French Open and the Madrid Masters. The player from Kempen also has a 40% win rate on grass, while his Australian first-round opponent has never won a singles match on grass on the ATP Tour. Also overall, Christopher O’Connell, at 1.83 metres tall, is by no means a giant of serve who would be overly comfortable on grass court.
We find little that speaks for the Australian, which is why we recommend the win bet on the German. In the second round, Matteo Berrettini could theoretically be a really tough opponent for the player from Kempen.
