In a battle between two players ranked outside the top 100, Attila Balazs will be up against Pedro Martinez for a place in the 2020 ATP Rio Open semifinal with the match to be played on Friday, February 21. The match will be scheduled at the end of the day’s play on Thursday and you can find the Attila Balazs v Pedro Martinez live streaming options along with its preview, head to head and tips here.
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Attila Balazs v Pedro Martinez Head to Head
This will be their third meeting. They first met at a Futures event in 2017 which Balazs won in straight sets but in a tournament as recently as the previous week, at the qualifiers of the Argentina Open, Martinez made 1-1 on head to head with a three-set win over his opponent.
Career-Best for Balazs & Inching Towards Top 100
Till before the clay court swing began, Balazs was busy participating at the Challenger circuit, featuring in two hard court tournaments in Bangkok. He won the title in the first one and then lost in the round of 16 in the next opting not to participate in the Australian Open qualifiers.
Following that he has played in three tournaments on clay with mixed success but that has done enough to push him to 106th in the world before the start of this week – he was 268th on the rankings less than 10 months ago but has risen steadily.
At Cordoba, he won his opener against Lorenzo Sonego in straight sets before going out to Cristian Garin, and followed it up that defeat to Martinez which sent him out of the qualifiers. At this competition in Rio, he lost in the qualifiers yet again, but made it through as a lucky loser and has made it count since.
Wins over Pablo Cuevas and Thiago Monteiro give him a solid chance of a shock semifinal spot but even if he doesn’t get there, he is already in the top 100 of the rankings. It’s a rank he would love to maintain to give him that French Open direct entry.
Martinez Showing Signs of Consistency
If Balazs’ form can be termed as decent, Martinez has done a notch better. After an early exit at Noumea Challenger, he went through the qualifiers at the Australian Open and lo and behold; not only did he qualify for the main draw, he also made it to the third round where he went down fighting to Daniil Medvedev.
And as if to prove that result was no fluke, he has then featured in three tournaments on clay after that and done better than his ranking suggests. A qualifier at each of the Cordoba Open, Argentina Open and here in Rio, Martinez reached the second round at the first two tournaments and has gone one better here in Rio.
What makes things better is he has beaten better-ranked players like Hugo Dellien and Pablo Andujar to make it to the last-eight here and given his form, could well fancy his chances in this match.
Attila Balazs v Pedro Martinez Predictions & Tips
It comes as no surprise Martinez starts off as a favourite in this one with odds of 8/13 but we think he could better than just win here – more like a straight-set win.
Tip: Martinez to win in straight sets: 6/4 (Click here to get these odds with Unibet)
You can watch & bet on Attila Balazs v Pedro Martinez on Friday, February 21 here. Get the latest tennis predictions and tips here.
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