TipResumen

PREVIEW

Some of the handicaps at these Grand Slam events look very wide and so it can be a challenge in determining where they should land. This one looks right on the money as far as I am concerned, but I still give Leonardo Mayer enough of an edge to work his way into a position to cover what is a big spread even in a best of five set match. There isn't much in the way of recent form that would offer a lot of encouragement in backing Mayer in this First Round match, but he has proven to be significantly better on the hard courts than Laslo Djere. You could almost put this pick down to wanting to oppose Djere rather than having a lot of faith in Mayer, but the latter has been good enough to expect him to cover this number. Mayer has strong holding numbers which should keep the pressure on Djere who has really struggled with his return game on the hard courts. The Serb is 1-6 in main ATP matches on the hard courts in 2018 and he has a very low 10% break percentage which is going to make it tough to break the Mayer serve even if the latter can be someone who can go walkabout mentally within a match. Djere has shown to be at his most comfortable on the clay courts and his service numbers on the hard courts have not been the most impressive. He has won just under 62% of points behind his serve on this surface and you would have to think Mayer will have his opportunities to break this serve and really take control of this match. As long as Mayer is able to stay in this match mentally I do think he will win fairly comfortably. The Djere results on the hard courts have shown a player who does suffer multiple breaks of serve on this surface and even if one of the sets go to a tie-breaker I still believe Mayer is superior to Djere on the hard courts and he can show that by producing a fairly routine win in the First Round.



PREDICTION

I will back Leonardo Mayer to work his way to around four breaks of serve which may be enough for him to cover the spread in this First Round match.