Karen Khachanov vs Roberto Bautista-Agut Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Barcelona

Prediction published on 16/04/2024, 07:39  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 17/04/2024 at 07:53 in Tennis Predictions

Karen Khachanov is seeded seventh in the outdoor clay court Barcelona Open. The Russian faces wild card Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the last eight of this ATP 500 tournament. In the quarter-finals the winner of this match will face either 12th seed Cameron Norrie (who Khachanov beat last week) or qualifier Harold Mayot. Khachanov is ranked 17th in the latest rankings and a place higher in the ATP Race. His quality on clay is undoubted with two quarter-final appearances at Roland Garros. Last week saw him get to that stage in Monte Carlo but he lost to eventual champion Stefanos Tsitsipas. Winning this match will take him into the last eight of this tournament for only the second time and his only other appearance was seven years ago.

Roberto Bautista Agut is 86th in the live rankings, well below his career high of ninth in 2019. He leads Khachanov 6-4 in previous meetings but none of his wins have come on clay. Khachanov has won all three of their matches played on this surface and that includes a win in this tournament eight years ago. Agut is up to 61st in the live rankings and could go as high as 53rd if winning this match. Round one saw the Spanish wild card beat Roman Safiullin in straight sets, though he needed a tie-break in the second. He reached the last 16 of this tournament last year and the last eight six years ago. He'll give Khachanov a tough match but we fully expect the seed to make it into the next round.