Challenger Tour

Vilius Gaubas had a difficult start to the season, with a loss in the Australian Open qualifiers against what seemed to be a tough opponent, and a couple of defeats with the Luxembourg Davis Cup team last weekend. All of the matches were on a hard court, where Gaubas is not as strong, but today's opponent Zappieri is also more of a clay court player, so the situations for both are quite similar. Vilius Gaubas usually starts his season in February, with only one tournament in January to prepare, so his physical condition usually improves throughout the season. I believe this will also be the case now, and he should finally be able to win his first match of the season and prove that he can aim for new heights in his career this year, while also forgetting the real fiasco he had in Luxembourg last weekend.

Edas Butvilas has had a good start to this season in Ghana, and this year should definitely be a good one for him. Italian Maestrelli, although he sometimes performs well on hard surfaces, rarely plays there as he prefers to play on clay, so this could highlight Butvilas' advantage on the more favorable surface and his greater talent and brighter future. I believe that in the Davis Cup tournament on Sunday, if there had been a fifth match, Butvilas would have pulled through for Lithuania. Also, bookmakers currently do not consider him a top player, but he is the favorite in the duel. I choose Butvilas for Peru.