Heaven of Betting

Sebastian Ofner vs. Zsombor Piros

Head-to-head: 1-0 Piros

Sebastian Ofner, top seeded player from the remaining 4 players, and Zsombor Piros met already one time in the semifinal in Oeiray in 2022. Piros won the match clearly with 6-4, 6-2 on clay, a very slow court in Portugal. The surface change to grass in Ilkley will be more an opportunity for Ofner with his strong serve as he is in an excellent condition. After eliminating Lokoli in the first round in under 60 minutes he also showed his great abilities against Virtanen and Kudla which are as well as Ofner specialists on this surface. Piros himself had already a long and intensive week. Six long sets against Kovacevic, Bolt and Broom resulted in a semi final effort for the young Hungarian. After a fist intensive set facing many break points against him, Piros fought back against an injured Broom who is an absolute specialist on this surface. Regarding the impressive run from Ofner in the last weeks Ofner built up a good mental strength and will not be set up by the young Hungarian. Ofner will win this game in straight sets like he has done against Dennis Kudla and fight for the title in Ilkley.

Prediction: Ofner in 2

The Ilkley challenger semi-finals have been set and with Sebastian Ofner, Zsombor Piros, Arthur Cazaux and Jason Kubler are only 4 players in the draw. The both top seeded Nuno Borges and Charles Broom have already been eliminated and only seeded Sebastian Ofner (3) and Jason Kubler (4) are remaining. Sebastian Ofner seems to be on an incredible run. After a straight first round win he eliminated grass specialists Virtanen and Kudla with his impressive service game without allowing any break chances for Kudla in the last game. He seems to be ready fighting for the Ilkley title. Also, Piros who has been fighting six long sets in the previous round is eager to continue his run on the Ilkley challenger before starting into the week before Wimbledon. Young Artur Cazaux while playing his eleventh match on grass court in the past 12 days with an incredible 10-1 run and only beaten by Andy Murray is also competing to take advantage of his successful grass court season by crowning himself with a title after losing the final previous week in Nottingham. After recovering a clear loss against Ugo Humbert in s´Hertogenbosch last week Kubler fought himself back into a good run at the Ilkley challenger. The Australian allrounder has everything to continue his good run and get gather his first title on this surface.

Artur Cazaux vs. Jason Kubler

Head-to-head: First meeting

Cazaux coming off a brilliant week in Nottingham being only stopped in the final by Andy Murray showed up with his brilliant form also in Ilkley. After a first round on hardcourt due to the weather conditions against already in Nottingham defeated Gabriel Diallo, he had two short matches as Tirante and Shimabukuro gave up their match early in the second set without offering any chance to break his service game by himself taking advantage in nearly 70% to break his opponent. Kubler himself being seeded number 4 in this tournament seems to be unsteady. The matches against Ritschard and Bellucci have been very close and could have ended up the other way round. In the quarterfinal he won in straight sets against the Chinese Shang but it sounded clearer than his victory was. Shang himself couldn’t convert his break chances and therefore lost in straight sets. As Cazaux already showed top level skills in the last 12 days he will continue his run against the Australian Kubler who has to work on his service if he really wants to compete against Cazaux. Fatigue could have been a factor for the young Frenchmen if he had to play longer games in the earlier rounds but as he never had to play 2 full sets fatigue can’t be a factor.

Prediction: Cazaux in 3