World number 19 Alexander Zverev will be up against the 81st-ranked Alex Molcan in the first round of the 2023 Croatia Open Umag on Monday, July 24. Get the predictions and odds of this Alexander Zverev v Alex Molcan match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
- Other Croatia Open Umag match previews & predictions options here
- Also get all the Croatia Open live streaming options here
Alexander Zverev v Alex Molcan Head to Head
There have been two previous meetings between these two players and Zverev has won them both. Both matches came on clay and in this very season with the second of those two coming last week at Bastad where Zverev scraped through to a victory.
Also Read:
Zverev Coming off Bastad Quaterfinals
Zverev is steadily re-climbing the rankings charts having broken into the top 20 on the ATP circuit. He’s also coming off a quarterfinal exit at the Bastad Open in which he would have liked to do a lot better.
Sure, he did defeat Alex Molcan – his opponent here – in the first round there but that was a scrappy victory which saw Zverev needing a 7-5 scoreline in the final set.
He came back well to overcome Thiago Monteiro 6-1, 6-0 in the second round but then in the quarterfinals, he was bundled out by Andrey Rublev. And it wasn’t just the loss itself to a player whom he had beaten time and again in the past but the manner of defeat that would have caused concerns.
Zverev was a 8/11 favourite going into the encounter and rarely found his rhythm as he lost 6-2, 6-3 in that encounter.
That gives the French Open semifinalist a pretty solid 15-7 win-loss record for the season but if he’s looking to break back into the top 10, he will need to start defeating the top-10 players. For now though, he will be facing a player ranked 81st in the world.
Also Read:
Molcan Hoping to Turn Things Around
Molcan likes his time on clay and the one-time world number 36 has a career win-loss record of 28-14 on this surface. Not too bad for a player who has fallen to outside the top 80 at the moment.
This year, Molcan has won seven and lost six of his matches on this surface with two of those defeats having come against Zverev itself. The silver lining, if one could take that out of those matches, is that Molcan looked to have shown a marked improvement in the manner in which he came through in the second of those two meetings.
After a straight-set rout at the hands of Zverev at the French Open, he put up a stellar showing in Bastad last week before gallantly falling in a three-setter.
What Molcan will hope is to get that extra push through which he can try and clinch a rare win over his German opponent but even he would realise that Zverev doesn’t even have to be playing at his 100% to clinch this.
Zverev v Molcan Prediction and Tip
Zverev will start off a heavy favourite here and we are backing him to get back to his strong ways, winning this in straight sets.
Tips:
- Low Risk Tip: Zverev to win in straight sets: 1/2
The 2023 ATP Umag will be played from July 24 to 30. You can get all the tennis betting news with our tennis betting blog here. Also get rest of the tennis match previews here.
Be the first to comment