H2H: Feliciano Lopez (Esp) vs. Gilles Simon (Fra)

feliciano-lopez-vs-gilles-simon-prediction

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Feliciano Lopez holds a dominant 7-3 lead in the H2H series, but Gilles Simon managed to win the pair’s previous two meetings on indoor hardcourts in Rotterdam 2008 and Bilbao Masters 2011. Gilles Simon deservedly starts as the favorite, but on current form, neither of them is expected to have a significant advantage over the other. Former world #13 Feliciano Lopez is a former champion of ATP Vienna has done exceptionally well here in the past, but his most recent visit here in 2017 ended in the first round against the Frenchman Richard Gasquet, which is also his only ever first-round defeat in this event (7-1).

Feliciano Lopez and Gilles Simon will meet for the second time this season in the first round of ATP Vienna on Tuesday. They previously faced each other in the championship match in London during the grass season when the Spaniard prevailed in three sets to lift the seventh tour title of his career. Winning the title in London salvages the Spaniard’s 2019 season as he hasn’t done much other than that. Six of Feliciano Lopez’s 19 campaigns on tour this year have ended in the opening round, and only thrice he has managed to register back-to-back main draw wins on the main tour in these ten months.

Gilles Simon put an end to his poor run of form and registered back-to-back main draw wins for the first time since the grass swing by progressing to the quarterfinal in Antwerp last week, where he defeated Steve Darcis and compatriot Jo Wilfried Tsonga before losing to Stan Wawrinka in three sets. The Frenchman’s first two main draw appearances in Vienna ended in the first round in 2006 and 2008, but he managed to reach the round of 16 here during his recent two visits in 2016 and 2017. One of his previous two main draw wins in Vienna came against the Spaniard Guillermo Garcia Lopez in 2016.