Confidence, are you there?

Duel between out-of-form players and a match to kick-start their season.

Two players who therefore still haven’t won a main-draw match this year, and two players who have historically struggled indoors. Not easy to find an angle here.

Nevertheless, even though I really don’t like him much, especially because of his casual attitude, it’s the Serb whose game is the least ill-suited to indoor conditions, and it seems logical to me to see him as a slight favorite here. On paper, Kecmanovic should be able to take control in the rallies and dictate the pace thanks to his aggressiveness. Carreno Busta, on the other hand, will need to be very solid on serve and draw on all his experience to compensate for his limitations on this surface. He has managed to do that at times in the past, but we’re far from prime Carreno Busta, even if he must have reassured himself a bit at the AO with that big battle against Mensik. In this kind of tight match-up, on a fast surface, the difference could come down to just a few key games, particularly on serve and in the pressure moments, and that’s where I have big doubts about the Serb, even more so when he’s lacking confidence. What can we do from a betting perspective?