Jiri Lehecka vs Roberto Bautista-Agut Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Beijing Open

Prediction published on 27/09/2024, 08:50  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 27/09/2024 at 09:50 in Tennis Predictions

Unseeded Jiri Lehecka takes on qualifier Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the China Open quarter-final. The winner will be up against either top seed Jannik Sinner or lucky loser Roman Saifuilin next. Here's our match prediction.

World number 37 Jiri Lehecka will be aiming to force his way into the top 32 so he can be seeded at the Australian Open. He's up to 35th in the live rankings and is in the same place in the ATP Race.

Lehecka made a bright start to the new year with a hard court title won in Adelaide, that's the surface this tournament is being played on. He also got to the quarter-finals of the Dubai and Indian Wells hard court tournaments.

All was going well then until he was injured during the clay court season and was off court until August. He's made steady progress in his comeback and this week has had a straight sets win over Pedro Martinez.

Roberto Bautista Agut is at 61st in the latest rankings and had to win two qualifying matches to reach this main draw. The Spaniard had to go to a final set in both of those matches with wins over Billy Harris and Roman Safiullin.

That took him into round one where the former world number nine defeated lucky loser Arthur Rinderknech in straight sets. Agut is up to 57th in the live rankings and three places hgher in the ATP Race.

This is his first tournament since playing in the Davis Cup earlier this month. That saw him get a win over Lehecka in straight sets. That made it 3-0 to Agut in previous meetings with the Czech.

Another win here will take him into his first hard court quarter-final since his first tournament of the year. We go for over 20.5 games to be played in this match.