German number one gets off to a flying start?
The reigning world champion Alexander Zverev will start the Monte-Carlo Masters 2022 as the number two seed on Wednesday. The German has already won two of the traditional three clay-court Masters tournaments in the past, the Madrid Open and the Italian Open. At the Monte Carlo Country Club, however, he has so far won “only” eight of his 13 singles matches and has not yet advanced beyond the semifinals.
Challenger Federico Delbonis already had to endure an energy-sapping match in round one, in which the Argentine defeated Spain’s Jaume Munar 2-1. It was only the seventh singles win in the 17th match for the current world number 34. Accordingly, in the run-up to the duel between Federico Delbonis and Alexander Zverev, the odds are swinging in the direction of the German.
Considering that Sascha has once again improved his service game and has won an incredible 88% of all service games in 2022, the Argentine should have great difficulty even breaking. Accordingly, there is a lot of value to be seen in Federico Delbonis against Alexander Zverev in the betting on a not-too-long second-round match.
Federico Delbonis – Statistics & current form
Current world ranking: 34
Position in the seedings: unseeded
The 31-year-old Argentine Federico Delbonis is now in his 14th year as a tennis professional on the ATP Tour. However, the player from Azul has never really been able to break into the complete world elite.
His career high was 33rd place in the ATP world rankings, which he achieved in the 2016 clay court season. Nevertheless, by reaching the second round, he has temporarily climbed back up to 33rd place in the virtual rankings and could even set a new record with a victory over Zverev.
Win rate of only 13% against Top 10 players
It should be noted, however, that the Argentine by no means enjoys the reputation of being a “giant killer”. He has faced an opponent from the current top 10 of the ATP world rankings 23 times in his career. Delbonis has only won three of these matches. A win rate of just 13%.
Exactly those percentage points, which were missing as soon as he faced well-known opponents, also prevented the 31-year-old from reaching for the stars more often. He only won two tournaments at small ATP Internationals in his long career. He won the not-too-well-attended clay court tournaments in Sao Paulo in 2014 and Marrakech in 2016.
Won only seven of the 17 singles in 2022
The Argentine has also always finished early in Major tournaments. In 30 Grand Slams he has only reached the last 16 once. In 36 Masters tournaments, meanwhile, he has only reached one quarter-final on record.
Alexander Zverev – Statistics & current form
Current ranking in the world rankings: 3
Position in the seedings: 2
The 24-year-old German Alexander Zverev is extremely motivated when he travels to the Monte-Carlo Masters 2022. After all, the major tennis tournament in the Principality of Monaco is the only Masters tournament on clay that Sascha has never won before.
The reigning world champion has competed six times in the past at the Monte Carlo Country Club, where he won eight of the 13 singles (62%), but only reached the semifinals once in 2018.
Won 14 of 19 singles in 2022
As the number two seed, the German benefited from a bye in the first round.
The clay court season officially starts now for Alexander Zverev, who has already played two matches on this surface in 2022 as part of the Davis Cup qualifying with Germany against Brazil.
Six weeks ago, the 24-year-old clearly beat the Brazilians Thiago Seyboth Wild and Thiago Monteiro 2:0, who admittedly were not touchstones outside the top 100 of the ATP world rankings. With 14 wins from 19 singles matches, Sascha’s annual record still reads positively.
93 of 130 singles won on clay court
While the German is still missing his first singles title in the new year. The chances that it could be now in the clay court season are nevertheless good. Sascha has already won six of his 19 singles titles on the ATP Tour on clay, where he has a career record of 93:37.
With a win rate of 71.5%, clay is considered the most successful surface for the reigning world champion. It therefore makes a lot of sense to bet on Federico Delbonis to reach the third round against Alexander Zverev.
Federico Delbonis – Alexander Zverev Direct comparison / H2H balance
Head to head: 0:2
The two athletes have faced each other twice so far and because both matches took place on clay in 2019, the head-to-head comparison is quite meaningful. In both contested matches, the German prevailed in the end – most recently at the ATP Hamburg 2019.
Federico Delbonis – Alexander Zverev Tip
When predicting Federico Delbonis against Alexander Zverev, it must be taken into account that clay court is by far the strongest surface for the Argentine, who has celebrated his only notable successes on the ATP Tour on this surface to date. However, the German all-rounder is also an expert on this surface. Sascha has won 71.5% of all his singles matches on clay and has already won three Masters titles on this surface in the past.
And because the German has once again improved on his own serve, it should be difficult for the Argentine to break. So the match could be over in a hurry.
