Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Hubert Hurkacz Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Cincinnati Open

Prediction published on 17/08/2023, 06:00  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 17/08/2023 at 06:54 in Tennis Predictions

Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas has no seeded players between him and the last four of the Western & Southern Open. He takes on unseeded Hubert Hurkacz in the last 16 of this outdoor hard court Masters event. The winner faces either unseeded Emil Ruusuvouri or lucky loser Alexei Popyrin in the quarter finals. The world number four recently won the hard court Los Cabos Open but lost in his first match in the Toronto Masters to the resurgent Gael Monfils. The 2023 Australian Open finalist will want a deep run here as he completes his US Open preparations. It's gone well for him so far in Cincinnati with a straight sets win over Ben Shelton. It wasn't too easy though as both sets went to a tie-break.

Hubert Hurkacz began this tournament ranked 20th in the world and is up to 18th in the live rankings. His career high ranking is ninth, achieved two years ago. Before this tournament, the Pole had won 27 of his 44 main draw matches played this year. His most recent event was in Montreal where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the last 16. He took the first set off the world number one but then lost a couple of tie-breaks. He's won one hard court title this year being victorious in Marseille six months ago. Only one other hard court quarter final has been reached in 2023. In Cincinnati, Hurkacz had to go to three sets to win his first round match against Thanasi Kokkinakis. In the second round he came from a set down to beat 15th seed (and defending champion) Borna Coric. His record against Tsitsipas is a poor one though. He trails 7-2 in previous meetings with all those matches being played on hard courts. We go for Tsitsipas to get another win here, have a side bet on a tie-break being played.