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When France’s Benoit Paire and Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut will meet in their upcoming fourth-round contest at the Championships, Wimbledon, it will be a contest between two battlers who have always struggled to progress beyond the Round of 16 at Grand Slam events.
While Bautista Agut has made just a solitary appearance in the quarter-finals of Grand Slam, when he stunned Marin Cilic to progress to the last eight at the Australian Open earlier this year, Paire is aiming to achieve a debut spot in the quarter-finals of a Major if he overcomes his resilient Spanish opponent.
Following an impressive title win at Doha and the first-ever quarterfinal appearance in the Majors down under at the beginning of this year, the Spaniard, who made a promising start to his 2019 campaign, has gone off the boil of-late in the lead up to Wimbledon. However, it must be said that Bautista Agut has looked in prime form at the Wimbledon so far and has not even dropped a single set all week at the All England Club.
For the 30-year old Frenchman Paire, twin title wins at Lyon Open and ATP Grand Prix Hassan II mean 2019 has been a relatively successful year so far and a second successive appearance in the last 16 at the Grand Slam Majors is certainly a step in the right direction.
Bautista Agut's dominance over Paire
The duo of Roberto Bautista Agut and Benoit Paire have squared-off on six occasions in the past with their head to head tally 6-0 lopsidedly favoring the Spaniard. In their only meeting on grass at the 2015 edition of Wimbledon, the Frenchman came close to beating the Spaniard after gaining a 2-0 set lead, but squandered the opportunity to slowly crumble in a painful five-set defeat.
Their upcoming fourth-round tie is their first meeting on the tour in nearly two and half years and one can expect an intense battle between the two players as the race towards the quarter-finals heats up on day seven of the Championships.
Bautista Agut has promised so much over the years, but delivered very little, and only in bits and pieces. The Spaniard would aim for consistency as he looks forward to go further as possible in the third Slam of the year.
Benoit Paire, who pushed Kei Nishikori to five sets in their Round of 16 clash at Roland Garros last month, would look forward to emulate that performance against Bautista Agut as well.
While Bautista Agut starts as the favorite, the Frenchman still has an outside chance to upset the Spaniard. If Paire plays to his full potential, we can expect a thriller of a contest at Court 18 of All England Club.
Can Bautista Agut continue his winning ways to cruise into his only second quarter-final at the Grand Slam Majors or will Paire script a staggering success story of his own to find himself a place in the Grand Slam quarter-final for the very first time in his career?
In a race for a spot in the quarter-final, an interesting contest between Bautista Agut and Paire awaits us on day seven of the Championships, Wimbledon.
Prediction: Roberto Bautista Agut to win in four sets.
