Karen Khachanov vs Pablo Carreño-Busta Prediction & Betting Tips - Olympic Tournament

Prediction published on 29/07/2021, 16:34  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 29/07/2021 at 17:35 in Tennis Predictions

Sixth seeded Pablo Carreno Busta takes on the 12th seed Karen Khachanov for a place in the Olympics men's singles. Busta is world ranked 11th and has continued the good form that was shown when winning in Hamburg recently. It's made up for the first round defeat he suffered at Wimbledon. This tournament has seen the Spanish player defeat Tennys Sandgren, Marin Cilic, Dominic Koepfer and then second seeded Daniil Medvedev in the last eight. Busta leads Khachanov 3-2 in previous meetings. The Spaniard won the first two in 2017, Khachanov won the next two and the most recent match was this year. Busta won that one on clay in Madrid in straight sets. All five previous matches have been in Masters tournaments. 

Karen Khachanov is the world number 25 and is in the Russian Olympic Committee team. He did better than Busta at Wimbledon, getting to the last eight, only the second time he's got that far in a Grand Slam. This is his third semi-final of the year, the others coming in a warm-up event for the Australian Open and a clay court tournament in Lyon two months ago. Khachanov had to go to three sets to beat Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round of this Olympic tournament. He had good wins over James Duckworth and then beat the eighth seeded Diego Schwartzmann in round three. Another three setter came in the last eight as he defeated 14th seeded Ugo Humbert (middle set lost).  Busta has only dropped one set so far in this tournament, go for him to make it to the final.