Fabio Fognini vs Rafael Nadal Prediction: No chances for the Italian

The second opponent for Rafael Nadal, four-time winner of the US Open, will be the Italian veteran Fabio Fognini. The men know each other very well, having met 17 times. The Spaniard has the advantage, but the Italian has also defeated the king of the clay, including on clay.

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Fognini is in full control of his game practice, unlike Nadal. Before the US Open, the Italian played three hard courts tournaments in Montreal, Cincinnati, and Winston-Salem, losing four times and winning five. The best performance of this period for Fognini was at the Masters in Ohio, where the Italian reached the round of 32 to lose to Andrey Rublev. In the first round of the U.S. Open, Fabio played a five-set match against Karatsev that lasted three hours and 36 minutes. During the course of the match, Fognini was losing 0-2 in sets, but thanks to character and willpower, he won. Fognini had 13 aces and 15 doubles, won 71% of points on first serve and 45% on second serve, 35%/43% on the receiving end, 30/61 winners/unforced errors. His stats are weak to say the least, but he won enough to beat Karatsev.

For Nadal, the upcoming match will be only his third hard court match after the grass part of the season. In Cincinnati, the Spaniard lost to Coric in three sets and in New York 3-1 against Hijikata, the world No. 198. It is noteworthy that Nadal lost the first set, confidently winning the next three and advancing to the second round of the US Open. He had 9/2 aces/double faults, 77%/65% on first serve, 34%/52% on the receiving end, 43/22 winners/unforced errors.

As we wrote above, Fognini and Nadal played each other 17 times, Fabio winning 4 matches, including once on hard court and exactly at the U.S. Open in round of 32 in 2015. That meeting ended with the Italian winning in five sets. It is noteworthy that the men did not play a single tie-break at that time.

Nadal is a master of gaining form over the course of the tournament, and in general, the Spaniard played a fairly quality first-round match, even despite losing in the first set. As for Fognini, despite beating Karatsev, he made a lot of mistakes. If the Italian does not add in two days, he has all chances to be thrashed, at least in one of the sets. For this meeting, we offer the following betting options:

W2+TU (29.5) for 1.692 at 1xbet;

Total Under (27.5) for 2.26 at 22bet.