Gilles Simon vs Kevin Anderson Tennis Betting Tips - 6/20/2019

Gilles Simon vs Kevin Anderson

5 am EST, 20th June 2019

ATP London, England

Grass courts

Big-serving South African is back on tour. He was not active very much this season which started nicely with a title in Pune, India. Followed it up with second round in Melbourne and quarterfinal run in Miami, where he lost to Roger Federer. It was obvious there that something is not quite right, and soon after that he announced that he will be absent for a while, so he can fix problems that he has with his elbow. As he said, it was a difficult decision, but one he had to make in order to fully heal the injury and be at 100% for the rest of the season. 1st round match vs Cameron Norrie was his first after being sidelined for 3 months. Looking just at the result, you would probably think there is a lot of concern about him being rusty after being such a long time off the court. But actually, Norrie has proved to be a very tricky opponent. Brit played on a very high level, but once Kevin got his legs under him, he looked better and better, taking control in the second part of the match and turning it around after losing the first set. Serving up 19 aces is not something that is unusual for him, but having 10 break opportunities is. Alongside being very solid behind his serve, he was also very good from the baseline, once the rallies got further from those first 2 shots. He is not completely unfamiliar with this event, having played 9 times here with his best result being runner-up in 2015 when he lost to Andy Murray.

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His opponent wasn't that regular at this event. Gilles Simon played here 5 times and holds a negative record (4-5). Considering his quite impressive all-time grass court record (44-35), his start of this year grass court season was somewhat below expectations. Came from behind to beat Gojowzyck in Stuttgart, before getting eliminated by Auger-Aliassime one round later. Was in very difficult position vs James Ward in the first round here. First being set down and then also being forced to break Ward when serving for the match in the third. Managed to do so and won the match in third set tie-breaker.

Matchup

The win is nice, but as I said, he is not playing at his best right now. Its enough to get by 3rd tier guys, but when someone like Kevin Anderson is standing across the net, it is very difficult to get away unscathed while making so many mistakes during the match. One thing is clear, though. Simon is going to be motivated to avenge his loss from 2015 event here when Anderson stopped him in the semifinals. Played on a bunch of other occasions as well, with outcomes being similar and Kevin dominating the H2H 4-1.

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Betting odds & prediction

Motivated or not, it is going to be very difficult for Simon to avoid the defeat in this one. Playing conditions in Queens were not very fast on Day 1 comparing to other grass court events. It might help Simon to keep the ball in-play a bit longer during the baseline rallies, but it also provides less protection for his serve, which is probably his biggest weakness. Not putting high enough % of first serves in play, allows the opponent to be very aggressive with the return against the 2nd serve and put a lot of pressure on Simon. Because of that, I think he is going to get broken several times in this match and there will simply be not that many opportunities at re-breaking Anderson and getting back into the match.

Guy's Pick: Kevin Anderson -205

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