Pablo Andujar vs Roberto Bautista Agut Tennis Prediction
Pablo Andujar won their only previous meeting in an ITF event 13 years back (2005). Though Agut has come a long way in the recent years, ability wise, Andujar is capable of winning this contest, but fitness-wise, there’s still a few question marks around him especially considering Bautista Agut demands a lot from his opponents.
Pablo Andujar News
The last-minute withdrawal of Hyeon Chung handed Pablo Andujar a lucky loser spot in the main draw, and he grabbed it with both the hands by defeating Bjorn Fratangelo in the last match of Wednesday’s play, 6-4 6-3.
Pablo Andujar deserves his place in the main draw of ATP Barcelona (either as a wildcard or lucky loser) considering the kind of results he produced in the recent weeks, despite coming back from a lengthy injury spell.
The Spaniard, who played just four matches in the entire 2017 season (2/2), won two consecutive titles at Alicante Challenger and ATP Marrakech earlier this month.
Marrakech was Andujar’s first title on tour since Gstaad 2014. He has won 12 titles so far in his career (at all levels) with all 12 coming at the clay tournaments.
After facing early round exits in his first six appearances at Barcelona, Pablo Andujar finished as the runner-up to Kei Nishikori in his recent appearance, in 2015.
Roberto Bautista Agut News
Roberto Bautista Agut had to fight back from a set down against Ivo Karlovic to progress into the round of 16 of ATP Barcelona for the second consecutive season.
In 2017, Agut lost his round of 16 match here to a Spanish opponent, Albert Ramos Vinolas, in three sets. A win on Thursday will help him equal his best Barcelona result, quarterfinal in 2015.
Moreover, Bautista Agut lost his round of 16 match to David Goffin at the Monte Carlo Masters last week, and he will be hoping to go one step further this week.
Though Agut has faced a handful of early-round exits so far in 2018, he will still see this as a highly successful start to the season, having won titles at Auckland and Dubai (the biggest title of his career).
Tennis Prediction: Roberto Bautista Agut
Odds: 1.45
