Alexander Zverev vs Ben Shelton Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Cincinnati Open

Prediction published on 16/08/2024, 17:36  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 16/08/2024 at 19:17 in ATP Cincinnati Open Predictions

Third seed Alexander Zverev faces 12th-seeded Ben Shelton for a place in the Cincinnati Masters semi-finals. The winner will face either top seed Jannik Sinner or fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev in the last four. Here's our quarter-final match prediction.

Zverev is ranked fourth in the latest world rankings and third in the ATP Live Race. A couple of more wins in this tournament will see him rise another place in both ranking lists.  He is in his sixth ATP Tour quarter-final of 2024 but yet to win a singles title on this surface.

To reach this quarter-final, he's beaten Karen Khachanov and Pablo Carreno Busta without dropping a set.  A busy year has now seen him win 51 matches and he'll be hoping to make it 52 with a win over Shelton.

This is the first time these two players have had a match. Shelton is up to a new career high of 13th in the live rankings. A win over Zverev will take him up to 12th. He's only dropped one set so far but had to play 80 games in five sets.

The first four he played in this tournament against Reilly Opelka and Tomas Martin Etcheverry all went to a tie-break. The latter match went to three sets but on Friday he beat Fabian Marozsan without dropping a set or playing a tie-break. 

This is a lot tougher and we tip Alexander Zverev to win in straight sets.