Does last year’s winner make short work of it?
If you were to ask Alex de Minaur about his favourite tournament, the answer would certainly be the competition in Atlanta. The Australian won last year’s tournament in Georgia and claimed his second title at the Atlantic Stadium!
The professional from Sydney thus claimed two of his seven triumphs on the ATP Tour at the BB&T Atlanta Open. Now it’s up to Alex de Minaur against Ugo Humbert. What tip does the betting community have at hand?
The Frenchman goes into the encounter as an underdog and lost the last three duels against the player from Down Under. On the other hand, he also inflicted a particularly painful defeat on Alex de Minaur once before. This was the final of the tournament in Antwerp about three years ago.
Ugo Humbert – Statistics & current form
The Frenchman has three ATP tournament victories to his name so far. The fact that he won two on hard court and one on grass at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, Westphalia, in 2021 shows that the former surface suits him particularly well.
This assessment is supported by the fact that the 25-year-old has also recorded six of his nine Challenger Tour victories on hard court. In view of this, Humberto will be glad that the grass court season is over for the time being. Within this season, his performances were only moderate.
The professional from Metz was knocked out of the tournament at the All England Club in the 1st round at Wimbledon, among others, and the left-hander lost four of his seven matches on this surface in 2023.
Humbert still has room to improve in Atlanta
Humbert’s start in Atlanta, however, was also mixed. Against his compatriot Constant Lestienne, who is around 60 places lower in the world rankings, it was only enough for a narrow 2:1 victory. The two-and-a-half-hour match took a lot of energy and Humbert had problems with his serve, among other things.
He produced six double faults on his service and only put more than half of his first serves into the court. The professional, who is coached by Cyril Brechbuhl, then recorded a 2-0 win over Lloyd Harris, but this success was not convincing either. Humbert only won the first set in a tie-break and the second by a similarly narrow margin of 6:4.
No tiebreak between Humbert and de Minaur?
With this in mind and the fact that the match is now against a much stronger opponent, betting odds on no tiebreak are also promising for the match between Ugo Humbert and Alex de Minaur, as in the eyes of the betting public it looks like the favourite from Down Under will win without a doubt.
Alex de Minaur – Statistics & current form
The Australian had no match in the 1st round of the ATP tournament in Atlanta and won his debut in the tournament against his compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis in two sets. Especially his attacks at the net were efficient.
No more than four of his 18 attacks did not end in a point win for him. In addition, de Minaur was confident on his own serve: he allowed only two break points against Kokkinakis and only one of his ten service games was lost.
Thanks to the success, last year’s winner in Atlanta now has a series of nine victories in this tournament! After his first success in 2019, the tournament was cancelled in 2020 due to corona and he did not play in 2021.
Australian already won again on hard court this year
Furthermore, in 2023 he added another ATP title to his previous six at the tournament in Acapulco, Mexico. As with his upcoming opponent, it is clear that the right-hander has a penchant for hard-court competition, with six of his seven ATP titles coming on that surface.
However, the son of a Uruguayan father and Spanish mother also had a few disappointments on this surface after his success in Acapulco. In Miami and Indian Wells in March of this year, he surprisingly dropped out of the competition in the first round.
Now he seems to have stabilised, because the 24-year-old was already convincing at least at times during the previous grass court season. Among other things, de Minaur, who is coached by Adolfo Gutierrez, reached the final at the Queen’s Club in London. In the final, he was beaten by the world No. 1 and recent Wimbledon winner Carlos Alcaraz.
There is little doubt about his fundamental talent, which he demonstrated impressively at a very young age. This can be seen in the fact that he has twice reached the final of the Next Gen ATP Finals, a tournament for the best under 21-year-old players in a season.
No more than 22 games?
In light of his fondness for the Atlanta tournament and his recent convincing debut in the tournament, the prediction of less than 22.5 games in the showdown between Ugo Humbert and Alex de Minaur is also worth a recommendation. Odds on this are available at Bet-at-home, for example.
Ugo Humbert – Alex de Minaur Direct Comparison / H2H-Balance
As mentioned at the beginning, the two professionals have faced each other four times so far and the Frenchman only defeated the Australian in their first meeting in the final of the 2020 ATP tournament in Antwerp. On the other hand, the three victories of the 17th ranked player in the world so far have all been in close three sets.
Ugo Humbert – Alex de Minaur Tip
For the quarter-final in Atlanta between Ugo Humbert and Alex de Minaur, the tip aims for a 2-0 win for the Australian. The professional from Down Under won the tournament in Atlanta last year and it was already his second title at this competition. His debut in the previous round was also convincing and de Minaur feels particularly comfortable on hard court anyway.
Only one of his seven ATP titles he did not win on this surface. Another argument in favor of the Humbert vs. de Minaur prediction is that the underdog wobbled in his two appearances in Atlanta so far, although it was only against comparatively easy opponents. With last year’s winner, a much heavier caliber is now on the agenda.