We move further down the Challenger grid in Cassis. It's time to unpack the more significant tennis players whom the draw pits against each other in the 1/8 finals. Frederico Ferreira Silva from Portugal, ranked at 229 in the ATP table, will square off against Liam Broady, the second-seeded player of this tournament.
This match could be called the centerpiece of the second round of play, so it can't be left without a competent bet.
The third hundred in the ATP table is not a true indicator of Silva's abilities, but rather a demonstration of his current form.
Frederico's season journey has been weak so far, with a good performance only in the clay Challenger in Troisdorf, where the Portuguese reached the final, losing against Ivan Gakhov. In the grand slams, Ferreira Silva was twice a stride away from the 1/64th, but when it came to the crunch, he was faced with an Italian who did not allow Frederico to enter the main draw.
Ferreira Silva has had a long title drought, and it's about time he started vying for awards, even if it’s at futures, which he hardly frequents. Three years ago, Frederico triumphed at a domestic tournament and since then, it's been only local minor successes.
In Cassis, Ferreira Silva managed to outmanoeuvre one Briton, albeit a rather unfit for Challenger, but once played at such a level - Daniel Cox. Now again he's up against an opponent from Great Britain, but a little younger and more complex. Liam Broady is pretty good at playing on hard courts, so Frederico needs to be ready to find ways to counter another Briton, who is almost the absolute favourite of this game.
The Briton has performed well in some tournaments this year, and generally looks decent over the course of the season, trying to break into the top 100 of the ATP world rankings. A feasible task, considering that Broady is already at 107.
Among Liam's achievements this season, it is worth noting the trophy won earlier on the Vilnius(2) Challenger indoors and a bit later, there was a final in Biel, which Broady lost to Jurij Rodionov. Aside from these tournaments, there were also minor victories, for example, several Challenger semi-finals in North America, and recently he reached the third round at Wimbledon, although the other three grand slams were played in the qualifiers.
Clearly, the Brit is hard at work and Challengers are needed to move up in class, and also to garner ranking points, which Broady now has enough of for some 250-level "main" tournaments. At the Challenger in Cassis, the Brit easily started with a victory over Frenchman Dan Added, who lost the first set and then flunked the second.
The game with Ferreira Silva will be tougher, but it's a matter of Liam's readiness, since the match with Added didn't really show if there's a problem with the Brit's technique. I think Frederico will put Broady to the test, skillfully mixing and playing variably on the receive. Everything will boil down to combinations, but Liam is in good order right now, so rightly, he's the favourite of the match.
I'll be betting on Liam with a negative handicap on games. I think that Ferreira Silva will stylistically lose this match, in which the initiative will be held by Broady, and he'll manage to win in two sets.
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