Both Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard will be bidding for their first ATP title when they battle in the Open Parc final on Saturday afternoon.
It has seemed like only a matter of time before Etcheverry lifts a trophy–especially one of the 250-point variety on clay. The 24-year-old has previously reached two such finals, both coming last season (Santiago and Houston). He came close in each location, falling to Nicolas Jarry in three sets at the former and dropping pair of tiebreakers against Frances Tiafoe at the latter.
Etcheverry looks poised to get over the hump this time around. The 29th-ranked Argentine has played well pretty much all year long and he has been without question the best player in Lyon, with mostly routine victories over Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo, Thiago Seyboth Wild, Dominik Koepfer, and Luciano Darderi.
Saturday obviously marks the first head-to-head matchup between these two players, as Mpetshi Perricard is just now emerging on the scene. The 20-year-old had been a mere 2-3 lifetime on the main tour prior to this week, but from out of nowhere he finds himself in an ATP final thanks to defeats of Lorenzo Sonego, Hugo Gaston, and Alexander Bublik (he also got a walkover from Yoshihito Nishioka).
The 6’8” Frenchman is dangerous with his huge serve, but Etcheverry far and away the superior all-court player and he also owns a big edge in terms of experience.
Pick: Etcheverry in 2
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Great effort by Ruud to win Geneva on the same day. Against Baez was impressive because I had him losing that match, and there were 4 breaks of serve (2 each) at the end. I had him almost 50/50 with Cobolli and then clearly ahead of Machac. Perricard is a great talent, winning his first ATP event on home soil against a red hot Etcheverry.
“on the same-day back up”