Roman Safiullin vs Andy Murray Prediction: The bookies don't believe in Roman's success

World number 93, Roman Safiullin, will face Andy Murray, world number 49. Although Safiullin has experience of beating the Briton, the bookmakers are on the side of Murray in the pair. Also worth noting is that Safiullin has played two matches in Basel, meaning he has no match practice issues.

Safiullin showed some promise in late September/early October at a tournament in Tel Aviv, where he reached the semi-finals, but then met Djokovic, who lost in two sets but lost the second game only on a tie-break. Then came a setback in Florence, a defeat at the hands of Celikbilek in qualifying, and a trip to Basel. In Switzerland, Roman qualified by beating out Struff and Munar, both of whom Safiullin beat in two games. The final match against Munar lasted an hour and a half, and Roman won 6-4, 6-3. During the match, Roman scored 12 aces with two double faults and won 77% of points on the first serve and 65% on the second serve. On the receiving end, he had the following statistics: 37%/58%. The bookies don't believe in Roman's success and predict his defeat.

Murray played one tournament in Gijon in October, knocking out Davidovich Fokina and Cachin in the third round. The Briton lost to Korda in three sets. The Briton won the second game easily, 6-1, but lost the deciding set by a score of 1-6. Murray missed out last week.

Safiullin and Murray have played once before, in September 2021, at a tournament in Rennes. Roman won that match in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in one hour and 52 minutes.

As written above, bookmakers don't have much faith in Roman. On the contrary, we predict Safiullin's success in the upcoming game. Firstly, Roman has had some match practice on the Basel courts, winning two sets in qualification. Second, a year ago in France on the Challenger, he defeated the Briton in three sets, and Murray had no chance of winning the third game. We believe Roman is underestimated in Tuesday's match, and we offer these predictions for the game:

• Handicap 1 (2.5) for 1.80;
• W1 for 2.25.