Бесплатный прогноз на Tennis - ATP Winston-Salem: Daniil Medvedev v Taro Daniel

Over the last month I have been keen to get behind Daniil Medvedev on a number of occasions and I have to admit he has not really let me down. There continues to be a slight under-appreciation of Medvedev and the kind of tennis he can play on the hard courts, but that may have something to do with the youngster losing a little of the consistency which he had been building up. The overall numbers produced by Medvedev on the hard courts in 2018 have been significantly improved on what he produced in 2017 and the Russian is 11-3 on the hard courts over the last month. A number of those wins have come in the Qualifiers, but that is the kind of level of opponent he will be facing in this Semi Final. Taro Daniel has had a strong run in Winston Salem but he has been far from convincing in at least two of his four wins here. You have to credit any player for getting through the matches when they have been as tight as they have been, but Daniel is right to be the underdog in this one. He can step up his level as he showed when beating Novak Djokovic at the Indian Wells Masters but that is arguably the best win of his career and there has been little sign Daniel can reach that level on any consistent basis. Daniel is holding under 75% of service games on the hard courts in 2018 which puts him under intense pressure all the time on the quicker surfaces, and that is highlighted by the fact he is breaking at under 25% of the time on the return. Putting those numbers together and you do begin to see it will be difficult for Daniel to maintain strong runs through the draws and he has been far from dominant in Winston Salem as I have already mentioned. The Medvedev return game has been decent on the hard courts with 38% of return points won on this surface in each of the last two seasons. Those numbers get a little better when Medvedev is playing opponents outside of the top 20 of the World Rankings and I do like the chances of the younger player winning and making it through to the Final with a cover of this number.