Gael Monfils vs. Pablo Carreno Busta – Prediction – ATP Vienna (Austria) 26.10.2020

H2H: Gael Monfils v Pablo Carreno Busta – comparison.

Gael Monfils is easily the better player on indoor hard courts (146/64 vs 28/29 in career) and also holds a healthy 3-1 lead in the H2H series against the Spaniard. However, the Frenchman’s lack of match time and shaky performances in recent months makes Pablo Carreno Busta the favorite in this evenly-poised match.

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Pablo Carreno Busta rested for a couple of weeks after a successful French Open campaign and returned to action in Antwerp last week, where he got edged out by the eventual champion Ugo Humbert, who had already played three matches on the surface (after the French Open). The 29-year-old Spaniard has won only one match in three ATP Tour events since the restart but gained a lot of confidence and momentum by progressing to the semifinal in the US Open and quarterfinal in the French Open. These results helped Pablo Carreno Busta make his way back into the top 15 of ATP Tour rankings.

Former world #10 Pablo Carreno Busta’s best performance on indoor hard courts this year was reaching the semifinal in Rotterdam. However, he failed to win a match in the other two indoor hard court tournaments that he entered this season in Montpellier (lost to Norbert Gombos) and Antwerp (lost to Ugo Humbert). Pablo Carreno Busta is a former quarterfinalist of ATP Vienna (2019) and heads into this clash with a perfect 2-0 record in the first-round matches, having beaten Guido Pella in 2017 and Denis Shapovalov in 2019.

Gael Monfils did not play any exhibition matches during the tour suspension, and it reflected in his performance and results since the restart as he has gone 0-3 in these three months. In fact, all those three losses came against lower-ranked players such as Dominik Koepfer in Rome Masters, Yannick Hanfmann in Hamburg, and Alexander Bublik in the French Open. The mercurial Frenchman shouldn’t be asking for a better venue to collect some wins and regain confidence as he has got a terrific record in Vienna. He is a former runner-up of ATP Vienna and reached at least the quarterfinal in five of his previous six campaigns here. Moreover, former world #6 Gael Monfils is unbeaten on indoor hard courts this year, having played nine matches and won all nine, which earned him an ATP 500 title in Rotterdam and ATP 250 title in Marseille.

Match Info.