The hottest tennis tickets this week are at the Astana Open. Five of the current crop of Top 10 players will be in action in Nur-Sultan including new World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz. As always, we here at LWOT, have every single match covered in our daily predictions including Felix Auger-Aliassime’s match against Bautista Agut. Who will move on to the second round?
ATP Astana Open Day 1 Predictions
Botic van de Zandschulp vs Beibit Zhukayev
Head-to-head: first meeting
The second-year syndrome has caught up with a few players on the main tour with the likes of Karatsev struggling big time to live up to their breakout success of 2021. That is not the case with van de Zandschulp who has dealt with the baggage that has accompanied the hype. He has won twice the number of matches from last season and will target a return to the world’s top 30 and a probable seeding spot at the Australian Open next year. Zhukayev is touted as the next big thing from Kazakhstan and has enjoyed a fruitful start to life on the Challenger Tour in recent weeks. But this is a tall order to expect him to get anything from this match.
Prediction: van de Zandschulp in 2
Hubert Hurkacz vs Francisco Cerundolo
Head-to-head: first meeting
Hurkacz left it too late to qualify for Turin last season and that appears to be the case this year. He is currently 10th in the Race, jostling with a multitude of players and it looks like qualification will go down to the wire yet again. Hurkacz could have staked his claim at the US Open and more recently in Metz, but lost both times despite being slated as the clear favorite in those matches. He should, however, atone for those defeats against Cerundolo at the Astana Open. The Argentine is playing his first indoor hard-court match in three years. Expect the Pole to crank up the pressure.
Prediction: Hurkacz in 2
Andrey Rublev vs Laslo Djere
Head-to-head: Rublev 3-1 Djere
Rublev is one of five players to win 40 or more matches this year. And the most impressive thing is that he has played the fewest matches among the lot (55). Such has been his consistency levels. Djere, for his part, has stormed into the main draw after winning a pair of qualifying matches over the weekend. The two players last collided at the US Open and Djere threw the kitchen sink at Rublev, coming back from two-sets-to-love down, and nearly completing the upset. The Serbian has conjured up some of his best tennis against Top 10 opposition in 2022 without any measure of success. It is not unthinkable he finally gets over the line in this one.
Prediction: Djere in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
