We’re through to the second round at the 2019 Croatia Open in Umag. Top seeds Fabio Fognini and Laslo Djere will start their campaigns on Wednesday. Who will prevail?
ATP Croatia Open Day 3 Predictions
Fabio Fognini vs Stefano Travaglia
Head-to-head: Travaglia 1-0
We all know how erratic Fabio Fognini can b,e but since capturing the biggest title of his career at this year’s Monte Carlo Masters, the Italian has been rather convincing, reaching back to back third rounds at Madrid and Rome (lost to Thiem and Tsitsipas) and the fourth round at Roland Garros (lost to Zverev). His countryman is a very decent clay court player, but this is one is on Fabio and his mental stability. The 2016 Umag champion had some great performances here over the years and if he sets his mind to it he shouldn’t have too many problems in this second round encounter.
Prediction: Fognini in 2
Laslo Djere vs Paolo Lorenzi
Head-to-head: Djere 4-3
This might be closer than it looks ranking-wise, but Djere is still heavily favored to win. The Serbian has had a brilliant clay-court season, compiling a 15-7 win-loss record including his maiden ATP title at Rio de Janeiro. He didn’t back off after that, scoring some impressive wins on European clay as well (e.g. Juan Martin Del Potro, Nikoloz Basilashvili, Dusan Lajovic). On the opposite side of the net will be a player on the opposite side of a career. Paolo Lorenzi’s decline has been rapid this season and the 37-year-old barely scraped through Peter Torebko in a third-set tie-break on Monday. At this stage of the Italian’s tennis journey, Djere will fancy his chances to reach the quarterfinals.
Prediction: Djere in 2
Leonardo Mayer vs Jiri Vesely
Head-to-head: Mayer 6-1
The Argentinian scored a great win over Pablo Andujar on Monday and he should be able to advance further here. Vesely was very sloppy in the first round almost throwing away a 5-1 lead in the decider against Cedrik-Marcel Stebe and taking into consideration their h2h, which stands at 4-1 on clay with Vesely’s only win being five years ago, it’s hard to imagine the big-hitting Leonardo Mayer losing here. Their meeting at Roland Garros this year ended with a 7-6 6-3 6-0 victory for the Argentinian and almost two months later he should be able to repeat that performance.
Prediction: Mayer in 3
Attila Balazs vs Filip Krajinovic
Head-to-head: Krajinovic 1-0
It was not just another day in the office for Attila Balazs. The Hungarian bageled his opponent, Croatian Viktor Galovic, in the first set but in an unpredictable turn, Galovic served for the match in the third. Balazs was forced to save seven match points, including two on his opponents’ serve before finally triumphing in the deciding tie-break. It won’t get easier for the Hungarian as in the second round he will face Filip Krajinovic, who’s won 18 out of 21 clay-court matches he played this season. The Serbian had a pretty late finish to his match yesterday, which gives him just about 17 hours to recover. Anyhow, you can expect the Serbian, who overcame a slow start to defeat Taro Daniel, to continue piling up wins.
Prediction: Krajinovic in 2
Disagree with our Croatia Open predictions? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
