Luca Van Ash, a young Frenchman, shows a higher level of skill and more consistent play compared to Alex Molchan. Van Ash has already demonstrated good form and continues to improve with each match. He had some difficulties with Zverev, but was able to put up a worthy fight. On the other hand, Molchan is in a prolonged crisis and has only managed to secure one win in the past five matches. His game has become less confident and he makes a lot of unforced errors, especially in reception. Additionally, Molchan has shown poor results in recent tournaments. Based on these facts, it can be concluded that Van Ash is the favorite in this encounter and should easily defeat Molchan.
Forecast for the match between Van Ash and Molchan: Van Ash and Molchan will meet on the courts in Kitzbühel. Van Ash, after a successful performance in Hamburg, will make his debut on clay this season. His balance on clay this year is 60%, indicating good adaptation to this surface. Van Ash's opponent will be Molchan, who has a slightly negative win-loss record this year. He also does not show the best results on clay. In the last 10 matches against left-handed players, Van Ash has won 8, indicating his confidence in playing against this type of player. Additionally, Molchan has lost to all opponents with a higher ranking in his recent matches. There is no available data on head-to-head matches between Van Ash and Molchan, so this match will be their first meeting. Taking into account the aforementioned factors, we predict that Van Ash will outperform Molchan in long rallies on clay and remains the more confident and experienced player in this matchup. Therefore, our forecast is a handicap in favor of Van Ash (-2.5).
