In the 1/16 challenger finals in Columbus, the Frenchman Joffrey Blankano will play against Emilio Gomez from Ecuador.
Geoffrey Blankano
The 23-year-old Frenchman, who is a good player on the ground, tried his hand in Australia at the very beginning of this year, but not very successfully. At the challenger in Traralgon , Blankano beat Ukrainian Vitaly Sachko in two sets in the 1/16 final – 7:5; 7:6 (7:5). But in the 1/8 finals, Blankano did not have a game due to injury with his compatriot Gilles Simon. Joffrey lost the first set with a score of 0:6, and in the second game the score was 1:2 in favor of Simon Blankano, he decided to stop the fight ahead of time. In qualifying for the Australian Open, Blankano lost in his first match to Mark Polmans from Australia – 6:7 (3:7); 2:6.
Emilio Gomez
The 30-year-old representative of Ecuador, in turn, also played in Australia earlier this year, but at the same time, on hard, namely, tennis players play hard in Tennis, Gomez looks more confident. Gomez overcame the entire qualification for the main draw of the Australian Open. In his first match, Emilio coped with Nikola Kuhn from Germany in two sets – 6:4; 6:4. This was followed by a sensational victory over Mitchell Krueger from the USA - 6:3; 7:5. And in the decisive qualifying match, Tomaso Fabbiano was already beaten – 7:5; 4:6; 6:3. In the first match of the main draw of the Australian Open, Gomez got on the Croatian Marin Cilic and lost to him without any chance – 3:6; 1:6; 2:6.
Between themselves, Joffrey Blankano and Emilio Gomez met last year at a challenger in a Portuguese Port. On hard, Gomez was stronger in three sets – 6:1; 6:7 (7:9); 6:1.
Forecast
Considering that Blankano plays extremely mediocre on hard in January, Gomez is deservedly considered the favorite of this confrontation. We do not see any special prerequisites for a sensation, and therefore we propose to bet on a tennis player from Ecuador.