Austria’s Sebastian Ofner will take on Argentine Facundo Diaz Acosta in the final qualifying round of the French Open
Sebastian Ofner is a regular in the Challenger Series and has made only a handful of appearances at the ATP level. He has been impressive during the qualifying phase so far and will be high on confidence coming into this encounter.
Ofner began his campaign with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Rio Noguchi in the opening encounter and followed it up with a hard-fought win in three sets against Jan Choinski. The 27-year-old is the No.14 seed in the tournament and he will certainly fancy his chances of progressing to the main draw of the Roland Garros.
Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta has been in sublime touch of late. He has come to Paris at the back of a title-winning campaign in the Open de Oeiras tournament. It was his second consecutive title having earlier won the Challenger Savannah tournament earlier this month. He is the man in form and has certainly shown his class in Paris as well.
Diaz Acosta is seeded 24th for the qualifying phase and has lived up to his billing so far. He began his campaign with a comprehensive straight sets victory against Italy’s Franco Agamenone. In the second round, he registered a commendable 7-5, 7-5 win over Ukraine’s Oleksii Krutykh. The job only gets tougher from here on though and there is no room for complacency. It remains to be seen if the Argentine can pull off an upset against Ofner and make it to the main draw of the competition.
Date – Friday, 26th May
Court Type – Clay outdoor surface
Telecast – Tennis Channel
Start Time – 02:30 pm IST
Location – Paris
Match details – Qualifiers
Ofner and Diaz Acosta have never played each other before on the ATP tour. This is the first professional head to head clash between the two players. On paper, Ofner is the slight favourite both in terms of rankings. However, one can certainly not rule out the in-form Argentine and he is expected to put up a tough fight. We are predicting an intense encounter with Diaz Acosta eventually winning in three sets.
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