Frances Tiafoe will face Bernabe Zapata Miralles in the second round of the Rakuten Japan Open. The game will start on October 6 at 06:00.
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Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #1 – Handicap (-3.5) for Tiafoe – 1.71.
Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #2 – Total Games Under 22 – 1.82.
Zapata Miralles has little to show his skills on the hard court. Bernabe has only two wins in six games played on the hard courts this season. Bernabe is more of a clay-court specialist, though. So, he can’t be expected to do much against Tiafoe, who is in superb form at the moment.
Tiafoe has been showing a fine game in the second half of the season. Frances recently played in the US Open semi-finals for the first time in his career. Two weeks earlier, he won the Laver Cup with the world team, where he managed to outplay Tsitsipas. We expect a productive performance from Tiafoe at the Tokyo event.
Tiafoe beat Yasutaka Uchiyama (6-3, 6-4) in the first match. Frances held his serve well, never allowing the Japanese to make at least one break.
In late September, he played two matches in the Laver Cup. In the first, he lost to Novak Djokovic. In the second, he won a hard-fought victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Tiafoe was also part of Roger Federer’s farewell match. Together with Jack Sock, he defeated Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in a doubles match. This, of course, was just a show.
Tiafoe’s main achievement this season was unexpectedly reaching the semi-finals of the US Open. In New York, he managed to beat Rafael Nadal and Andrey Rublev.
In five of Tiafoe’s seven matches on the Japanese courts, no more than 19 games have been played.
Zapata Miralles started the tournament with a victory over Taro Daniel (7-5, 7-5). Perhaps sensational is too big a word in this case, but in any case, the result is unexpected.
If only because Bernabe has won just one hard-court match on the ATP main draw so far this season.
Last week, Bernabe failed to make it past the first round in Sofia, immediately losing to Lorenzo Sonego (3-6, 4-6).
Zapata Miralles has established himself in the top 100 thanks to a relatively good performance on clay.
In 4 of Zapata Miralles’ last 5 matches, less than 9.5 games have been played in the first set. We offer to bet on “1st Set Games – Under 9.5” with odds of 2.00.
Type of Court – Indoor Hard
Speed of Court – 8/10
Tiafoe’s Rating – 19
Frances Tiafoe Wins/Losses in 2022 – 29/20
Zapata Miralles’ Rating – 80
Bernabe Zapata Miralles Wins/Losses in 2022 – 45/28
Frances and Bernabe will play their first head-to-head match.
The match will be played at Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan.
We recommend checking out the odds for the 2022 Rakuten Japan Open: Tiafoe vs Zapata Miralles at 22bet and MelBet.