Zhizhen Zhang vs Aslan Karatsev Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Almaty Open

Prediction published on 14/10/2024, 08:37  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 14/10/2024 at 12:37 in Tennis Predictions

Sixth seed Zhizhen Zhang begins his Almaty Open campaign against qualifier Aslan Karatsev. This is a hard court tournament being played in Kazakhstan. Can the seed make it through to round two? Here's our match prediction.

World number 46 Zhizhen Zhang was a career-high 31st in July. The Chinese player recently reached the final of the hard court tournament played in Hangzhou, losing to Marin Cilic in the final with both sets lost on a tie-break.

His form has dipped a little since then with losses to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Zizou Bergs in Beijing and Shanghai respectively. He's 42nd in the ATP Live Race and trails Karatsev 2-1 in previous meetings. Zhang won their first match in 2022 (on a hard court) but lost twice to him last year on clay and hard courts. He'll be looking to get back into winning ways against him here.

Aslan Karatsev is ranked 139th and had to go through the qualifying rounds to get into this main draw. The Russian won both of his matches in straight sets and that was welcome after losing four of his last six matches before this tournament.

The 31-year-old has only won two ATP Tour main draw matches this year with just one of those coming on hard courts. He's done well to get through the qualifying rounds but we tip Zhang to end his run and set up a second round match against either Mikhail Kukushkin or Alexander Shevchenko.