It’s been an up-and-down season thus far for Kyrgios. The fiery Aussie disappointingly crashed out of the Australian Open in just the second round earlier in the year, and has yet to appear in a final in the seven tournaments he’s entered. He had another early exit at the hands of World No. 95 Nicolas Kicker in his most recent tournament in Lyon.
On the other hand, though, he owns two wins each over (an admittedly diminished) Novak Djokovic and rising star Alexander Zverev. And three of his losses have come against Roger Federer (twice) and the resurgent Rafael Nadal on clay.
Kyrgios doesn’t have the greatest track record at the French Open, where he’s yet to reach the fourth round. However, he’s successfully cleared the first round in the last two years, and should have enough to overcome the veteran Kohlschreiber.
Philip Kohlschreiber’s clay court season started out promisingly enough. He reached the final at Casablanca, beating Jeremy Chardy and Benoit Paire along the way. Unfortunately, he lost to Borna Coric in three sets in the final.
The 33-year-old German also couldn’t quite replicate that type of performance in his next three tournaments, as he made quick exits at the clay courts of Barcelona, Munich, and Madrid.
Kohlschreiber hasn’t had much success in Grand Slam tournaments in general—he has made it to the quarterfinals just once (2012 at Wimbledon) in his career. But while he has been passable in the hard court Slams, he has not quite been as impressive on the clay courts of Roland Garros.
Kohlschreiber has an all-time record of 13-12 at the French Open, and has crashed out in the first or second round in eight of his 12 years in the main draw.
Writer’s Prediction
Kyrgios (-180) gets past Kohlschreiber with relative ease to reach the second round.
