On March 24, Pedro Martinez Portero and Jan-Lennard Struff will fight in the first round of the Miami tournament. Will we see the intrigue in this confrontation?
Pedro can bring to his asset the end of February. He managed to win the ATP series tournament in Santiago, where he managed to beat Sebastian Baez in the final match in three sets. Thanks to this, he climbed to 47th position in the ranking.
In Indian Wells, the representative of Spain managed to beat Joao Souza and lost to Cameron Norrie (3:6,3:6).
Jan-Lennard is failing this season. He won only one match in 2022. He managed to win one victory at the ATP CUP, and so far, it is the only one this season. John Isner was defeated; seven defeats followed that in a row. From the positive, Struff’s serve flies well, but at the same time, he makes an abundance of unforced errors.
In the last fight, he lost to Mats Moraing (6:3,7:6,6:4).
The tennis players have met twice in their careers. Struff was stronger in both matches; one was hard, the other on clay.
No matter how Pedro adds, hard is not a profile surface for him. Given this, it will be challenging for him to resist powerful tennis from Struff. Yes, of course, the German is not perfect now, and there are recessions in his game. But at the same time, he must seriously claim victory. At least take a set. I propose to play him with a positive handicap since there is a confidence that he will do it in a bitter struggle if he concedes.