Karen Khachanov vs Otto Virtanen Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Almaty Open

Prediction published on 15/10/2024, 14:37  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 17/10/2024 at 02:59 in Tennis Predictions

Third seed Karen Khachanov faces unseeded Otto Virtanen for a place in the last eight of the Almaty Open. The scheduled quarter-final opponent in this indoor hard court tournament is fifth seed Tomas Machac. Here's our match prediction.

World number 26 Karen Khachanov is up a place in the live rankings. The Russian is down in 30th place in the ATP Live Race but has had some promising results of late. He reached the last eight in Beijing but was beaten by Carlos Alcaraz.

His most recent tournament saw him beaten by Marcos Giron in his first match. He needs to recapture the form that saw him get to the semi-finals of the Marseille indoor hard court tournament and then win the Doha event.

Otto Virtanen is ranked 116th in the latest list but is up three places in the live rankings and four below his career-high ranking. That's after he beat Fabio Fognini in the first round of this tournament being held in Kazakhstan. 

The Finnish player really needed that win after losing his six previous matches. His last win was in the US Open where he lost in the second round after getting through the qualifying rounds.

He's won two Challenger Tour hard court events this year but not won two successive hard court matches on the ATP Tour. We tip Khachanov to win this in straight sets.