Denis Shapovalov vs. Ugo Humbert 9/18/20 Rome Open Tennis Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Denis Shapovalov meets Ugo Humbert in the third round of the 2020 Rome Open as they play on Friday, September 18th 2020. Will Shapovalov continue his run of form, or will the up and coming Frenchman get the better of him?

Ugo Humbert beat Fabio Fognini quite easily in my opinion as I knew Fognini would not be able to handle the Frenchman’s physical game especially with his terrible performance in Kitzbuhel last week. Humbert has had a solid 2020 season even with the hiatus and he will definitely continue rising up the ranks in the next couple of years in my opinion as he has a big serve and a beautiful game. However, what Humbert lacks is consistency. Humbert needs to ensure he can play strongly day in and day out to ensure he goes far into tournaments. Humbert will be confident coming into this third round match as his opponent also struggles from this issue.

Denis Shapovalov came through two hard-fought sets against Pedro Martinez on Thursday, and in the second set he had to compose himself and come back from 3-0, 40/40 down. Shapovalov is a very solid player but as said above, he lacks consistency and somewhat some mental strength. Shapovalov will be a world top 10 player one day I am sure of it, and he is on the right track to achieve this if he continues to grow his game one match at a time. Shapovalov will want to win this match and get more solid play time on clay before heading to Roland Garros.

This is going to be the third meeting between both players with the head to head standing at 1-1. Shapovalov is of course the favourite coming into this match but it will be tight I think. Humbert will bring the challenge to Shapovalov and it will be a tight match which could go all the way to the end. Humbert has a strong mentality and he will not back off from Shapovalov. However, Shapovalov has been in superb form as of late and I think he will definitely give it his all here to come through.