tennis | Monday, November 14, 2022 9:48 AM

Monday Bonus Tennis Best Bet: ATP Challenger Helsinki, Stefano Travaglia vs Henri Squire

Jon Reid

Stefano Travaglia vs Henri Squire Best Bet: Monday, November 14th

The women’s event this week will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the WTA continues its string of 125K events to wrap up the season and get their players some more opportunities to earn prize money and points as the season winds down.

That won’t get underway until Tuesday and the qualifying odds were posted late, however, so for our second piece today, we’ll preview another men’s match – this one from the qualifying draw in Helsinki, where Stefano Travaglia goes toe-to-toe with Henri Squire for a place in the main draw.

In this article:

Stefano Travaglia vs Henri Squire Preview
Stefano Travaglia vs Henri Squire Best Bet

Stefano Travaglia vs Henri Squire Preview

November 14th, 12:30 UK Time

It’s a contest of big servers in this one, vying to compete in the main draw of the Helsinki Challenger in this one. The primary difference? The Italian has a far more trustworthy baseline game and has more experience and pedigree at this level.

Squire can certainly fire his fair share of monster first serves, but Travaglia’s serve is nothing to sneer at, especially against a big, relatively immobile returner like Squire.

From the baseline, I trust Travaglia moving around and lining up his groundstrokes, far more than I do the German, who can look out of place at times once points get past the serve and first ball.

To have this one priced up as a somewhat even matchup is a bit too much for me. Travaglia certainly hasn’t been very good on the whole this year, but he’s been better of late and Squire isn’t exactly a world beater in his own right.

Stefano Travaglia vs Henri Squire Best Bet

I’m surprised to see the market continue to value Travaglia so lowly. There’s no doubt that his 2022 season could be classified as absolute rubbish for a long stretch, but his big serve and forehand combo work decently indoors and he’s posted a 6-3 record in his last nine matches at the Challenger level on indoor hard courts.

Considering he’s shown much more in the past than the younger Squire and is leaps and bounds better in any prolonged baseline exchanges, I’m happy to go ahead and back a potentially resurgent Travaglia to claim the main draw spot.