Nick Kyrgios vs. Ivo Karlovic Preview
Where: Lindner Family Tennis Center, Cincinnati, OH
When: Thursday, August 17, 2017, 2:30 PM ET
Line: Nick Kyrgios (-260) vs. Ivo Karlovic (+200) – view all 2017 Western & Southern Open lines
TV Broadcast: Tennis Channel
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Betting on Nick Kyrgios (-260)
The looming fall season is turning out to be much kinder to Nick Kyrgios, who most recently came out on top against Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters, 6-3, 7-6(6).
In the five tournaments that Kyrgios participated in that began before August, he suffered four first-round exits. But since the start of this month, the fiery Aussie has stormed back with a more respectable 4-1 record thus far, which includes a victory over World No. 10 David Goffin in the opening round at Cincy.
It’s worth noting that Kyrgios’s struggles mentioned earlier have come on the two turfs that aren’t to his liking: grass and clay. Now that 22-year-old’s back on hard courts, where he has a 66.3 percent lifetime winning percentage and an 18-6 record for the season, he’s in much better shape to bounce back in triumphant fashion.
Kyrgios should be able to maintain his hot streak against his next opponent in Ivo Karlovic, whom he has beaten three times over in as many head-to-head encounters. And as we would have it, all three of those victories came on the hard courts just as well.
Betting on Ivo Karlovic (+200)
With the massive 6-4, 7-6(9) second-round upset over World No. 11 Jo-Wilfied Tsonga, now’s the opportune time for Ivo Karlovic to make a strong push for his first victory of 2017.
Although the Croatian veteran did lose all three of his matches against Kyrgios as mentioned earlier, he only suffered one straight-sets defeat from back in 2015. Just this past March in Miami, Karlovic went the full three-set distance before having Kyrgios prevail with another win.
However, there’s really not much else working in favor of the 38-year-old. Out of the 15 tournaments he’s partaken in this year, Karlovic has only made three appearances in the quarterfinal stage, and all three of them were merely at 250 ATP Tour events. In fact, over half of the 15 tourneys he’s played in were at that level (eight), which means he isn’t getting much done against relatively inferior competition either.
Writer’s Prediction
Kyrgios (-260) escapes Karlovic’s grasp yet again in three hard-fought sets.
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