Dominic Thiem vs Mikhail Youzhny Tennis Prediction

Dominic Thiem will make his fourth consecutive appearance at ATP Halle to kickstart his grass season. In the previous three appearances, reaching the semifinal once in 2016 is his best result.
Dominic Thiem’s prolific clay season came to a disappointing end as he fell cheaply to Rafael Nadal in the final of the French Open (4-6 3-6 2-6). He managed to win 24 matches on clay in 2018 (24/6) which includes two titles at Buenos Aires and Lyon, and two runner-up finishes at the Madrid Masters and French Open.
The Austrian #1 has never felt comfortable on grass throughout his career, despite winning a title at ATP Stuttgart in 2016. Last season, he entered three grass tournaments and posted disappointing results such as second round at Halle (lost to Robin Haase), second round (R1 bye) at Antalya (lost to Ramkumar Ramanathan) and the round of 16 at Wimbledon (lost to Tomas Berdych).
Only for the second time this season, Mikhail Youzhny registered back-to-back wins in a tournament when he defeated David Guez and Egor Gerasimov in the qualifying stages of ATP Stuttgart last week. However, he lost his first-round match to Mischa Zverev in straight sets.
The Russian veteran has once again secured two straight-set wins in the qualifying stages (vs. Ruben Bemelmans and Matteo Berrettini) this week and will be hoping to avoid a second consecutive first-round defeat when he takes on the world #7 Dominic Thiem this Monday.
Former world #8 Youzhny made his Halle debut in 2002 and has so far appeared here 12 times, with the best result being a runner-up finish in 2013. Apart from that, he also made the semifinal twice and quarterfinal twice.
These two players met once in the quarterfinal of ATP Stuttgart in 2016 when Dominic Thiem fought back from a set down to win in three sets. Third seed Thiem is by far the better player at the moment, but on grass, the Russian does have an outside chance of causing an upset.

Tennis Prediction: Dominic Thiem 2-0 SET
Odds: 1.85