Adrian Mannarino vs Joao Sousa Tennis Prediction
Top seed Adrian Mannarino is safely through to the quarterfinal of ATP Antalya after dispatching Ricardas Berankis in straight sets, 6-4 7-5. It was the Frenchman’s first match of the week, having received a bye in the first round.
Adrian Mannarino is defending the runner-up points at Antalya this week, and with the defending champion Yuichi Sugita already out of the competition, Adrian Mannarino will see this as an excellent opportunity to go one step further this week. In 2017, he defeated Fernando Verdasco in the quarterfinal, as an unseeded player.
Former world #22 Adrian Mannarino, who has done extremely well on grass so far in his career (60/40), recently snapped his six-match losing run by reaching the quarterfinal at ATP London last week, where he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in the straight sets, despite making a solid start to the match, 5-7 1-6.
Joao Sousa was going through a four-match losing run before entering ATP Antalya but has done well to avoid his fourth consecutive first-round exit on tour and second consecutive first-round exit from Antalya, by defeating Florian Mayer (R1, straight set) and Mirza Basic (R2, three sets).
The Portuguese #1 endured a tough time at the beginning of the 2018 season but managed to regain form and confidence by progressing to the semifinal at Marrakech (defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili in QF) and winning the title at Estoril (defeated Kyle Edmund in QF).
The only previous occasion when Joao Sousa managed to win more than one main draw match in a grass tournament, he went onto reach the semifinal, at ATP Hertogenbosch in 2014. His career w/l record on this surface stands at 15/17.
These two players met once in the first round of ATP Acapulco (H) in 2014 when Joao Sousa fought back from a set down to win in three sets. Though both these players are equally capable of beating each other, being the better player on grass (marginally) makes Adrian Mannarino the slight favorite in this evenly poised quarterfinal encounter.
Tennis Prediction: Adrian Mannarino
Odds: 1.70
