Ilya Ivashka vs Juan Manuel Cerundolo Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP US Open

Prediction published on 27/08/2023, 08:20  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 27/08/2023 at 09:20 in Tennis Predictions

World number 103 Ilya Ivashka takes on Juan Martin Cerundolo in the US Open first round. The winner of this outdoor hard court match will face either 21st seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina or Marcos Giron in round two. Ivashka reached the fourth round of this Grand Slam last year. The Belarussian beat two seeds (Hubert Hurkacz and Lorenzo Musetti) before losing to Jannik Sinner in five sets. Ivashka was ranked as high as 40th in June of last year but has dropped 30 places since the start of this year. The 29-year-old got to the last eight of the recent Los Cabos Open outdoor hard court. That's his only hard court quarter final this year. However, last week he lost in three sets to Zhizhen Zhang in his first match after winning the first set. 

Juan Martin Cerundolo is ranked ten places higher than his opponent and making his US Open debut. He'd be a lot happier if this match was being played on clay as that's by far his best surface. His career high is 79th which was achieved in 2022. Early 2023 saw him win a couple of clay court Challenger Tour tournaments and he didn't play the Australian Open which is the only other hard court Grand Slam tournament. Rather than playing on the European hard court season, he opted predictably to play on clay in South America. In fact, his first hard court tournament of 2023 wasn't until last week in Winston Salem. Cerundolo made it to the last eight where he lost in straight sets to Borna Coric. This is their first meeting between the pair and we go for Ivashka to get the win.