TipResumen

PREVIEW

This is another First Round match in which both players competing have to have a full belief in their ability to move through to the Second Round. Both Alex De Minaur and Taro Daniel have had strong runs on the hard courts over the last month, but also struggled to keep the consistency at a level where they can produce those runs at a number of different tournaments. There isn't a lot of difference between the numbers that both players have produced on this surface, although De Minaur's are slightly superior to Daniel's. While I am favouring De Minaur will have enough to win this match it also feels there are going to be some twists and turns in the match. Both De Minaur and Daniel have very similar numbers when it comes to the return of serve both in terms of percentage of points won and also break percentages and that suggests there will be a number of breaks of serve in this one. That feeling is only backed up by the fact that both players are not the most dominant behind serve although that is where De Minaur holds a significant advantage over Daniel as far as I am concerned. The Australian has held serve at close to 80% of the time on the hard courts compared with Daniel who is below 74% and that is where the slight margins in this match can be made. Daniel has had some big wins on the hard courts and he did reach the Semi Final in Winston Salem last week which will have given him some confidence. Even with that in mind I can see Daniel has slightly weaker numbers in terms of percentage of service points and return points won in 2018 compared with 2017 and I believe De Minaur will work his way to a three or four set win.



PREDICTION

In a close match it is Alex De Minaur who looks to have the edge in both serve and return numbers and I think he will have just enough to see off Taro Daniel in three or four sets.