This Thursday French Sophia Antipolis challenger’s first round brings us to an Italian derby between Lorenzo Sonego and Simone Bolleli. It promises to be a fascinating battle. Both talented players will play in a serious confrontation. Review our thoughts on this match here below.

 

Simone Bolleli

Simone Bolleli is one of the most famous tennis players in Italy. And probably the best apart from Fabio Fognini. Though Simone had some famous wins in his career he was never able to make the last step in terms of winning an ATP title. Last season’s clay court season was especially good for Bolleli. This year’s start began slightly worse. Most of the matches he played were on hard and he only started playing on clay a week ago in preparation for the upcoming clay season. First clay win was quite easy against a German P. Heller in straight sets.

Bolleli usually likes playing from the baseline as he’s got a very good forehand and a beautiful single-handed backhand. Though he’s also a doubles grand slam champion so he’s comfortable at the net as well. Overall an extremely talented player once a top 30 but mentally fragile and unlucky with injuries which prevented him to rise to the top.

 

Lorenzo Sonego

Lorenzo Sonego – a rising Italian tennis hope. Showing his great form and improvement this season both on hard and clay. The start of the season in Australia left wanting as his qualification ended in disappointment. After that, he made a transition to clay and had some good wins against dirt specialists like Delbonis, Jarry, Andujar. And then a decent performance on Miami hard was he only lost to defending champion and this year’s runner up Jonh Isner in two tiebreakers in 1/16 stage. The start of this tournament was an easy win.

Sonego is a typical clay court player who moves and spins the ball very well. Also has a good serve which helps in getting some free points from his first serve. That was shown in the first season’s clay court swing when for a period of time he was winning 90% of his first serves. Obviously prefers long rallies from the baseline and has a decent double hander.

 

H2H

Bolleli leads 1-0. Their only match was played on clay was Simone came up on top in straights.

 

Article Image Taken from https://www.ligurianotizie.it/aon-open-challenger-lorenzo-sonego-primo-finalista/2018/09/09/308926/