{"id":45223,"date":"2022-01-13T09:29:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T14:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=45223"},"modified":"2022-01-13T09:29:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T14:29:01","slug":"atp-sydney-tennis-classic-semifinal-predictions-murray-opelka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2022\/01\/13\/atp-sydney-tennis-classic-semifinal-predictions-murray-opelka\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Sydney Tennis Classic Semifinal Predictions Including Andy Murray vs Reilly Opelka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Semifinal day at the ATP Sydney Tennis Classic looms after some enticing quarterfinals. David Goffin was forced to retire against Andy Murray, Reilly Opelka won a convincing match against Brandon Nakashima, Dan Evans saved a set point in the second set against a hobbling <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2022\/01\/10\/maxime-cressy-dangerous-australian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Maxime Cressy<\/a>, and Aslan Karatsev outhit Lorenzo Sonego. The two matches scheduled are filled with the same promise of quality tennis. Here are our predictions for both of them.<\/p>\n<h2>ATP Sydney Tennis Classic Semifinal Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Aslan Karatsev vs Dan Evans<\/h4>\n<p>H2H: Karatsev 1-0 Evans<\/p>\n<p>This is potentially the hardest match I&#8217;ve had to predict this tournament. Dan Evans is in remarkable form &#8211; not only has he won all five of his singles matches in 2022, he&#8217;s won all 10 sets he&#8217;s played. The Brit is looking like one of the best players from the ground in the world at the moment and should not be underestimated.<\/p>\n<p>Aslan Karatsev is no stranger to a challenge Down Under (his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/07\/24\/aslan-karatsev-recapture-magic-tokyo-olympics\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">amazing run at the Australian Open last year<\/a> saw him beat Diego Schwartzman, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Grigor Dimitrov in back-to-back matches). Evans and Karatsev&#8217;s match last year in Dubai is probably the yardstick for making predictions &#8211; Karatsev was able to attack Evans&#8217; serve repeatedly yet the match came down to the wire. I think Evans is feeling steadier and more secure in his game than ever before, providing the perfect ingredients for an epic, but Karatsev&#8217;s returning ability will see him over the line.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Karatsev in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"2jenAzfxQXJGyIuj6znR1w\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1364324872\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'2jenAzfxQXJGyIuj6znR1w',sig:'izD-3UCb75EUnmaWyCVT-jRned5LucK5R281AHFKYEU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1364324872',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Andy Murray vs Reilly Opelka<\/h4>\n<p>H2H: Murray 0-0 Opelka<\/p>\n<p>After beating Goffin in the quarterfinals, this is another good match-up for Murray. Players that use aces to win cheap points have historically fared poorly against the former world #1; the top 20 active players with the most aces per service point are a combined 14-74 against Murray (16% win-rate for the acers). Murray&#8217;s returning will definitely give him an advantage against Reilly Opelka.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s not to say Murray can&#8217;t be flustered by a big-server every now and then, particularly in recent years when he hasn&#8217;t been at his best physically. Couple this with the fact <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/07\/03\/reilly-opelka-more-serve\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Opelka is a decent baseliner<\/a> and tactician and there&#8217;s no way this is a done deal. Murray&#8217;s been moving well, however, has been able to put some pop on the ball this week and will be incredibly motivated in his first semifinal in over two years. I&#8217;m backing Murray to fell the giant.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Murray in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo from Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Semifinal day at the ATP Sydney Tennis Classic looms after some enticing quarterfinals. David Goffin was forced to retire against Andy Murray, Reilly Opelka won a convincing match against Brandon Nakashima, Dan Evans saved a set point in the second set against a hobbling Maxime Cressy, and Aslan Karatsev outhit Lorenzo Sonego. The two matches [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3704,"featured_media":30883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[16,16057,9895,15582,4170,113,15419,19,15684,17160,2373,2369],"class_list":["post-45223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-andy-murray","tag-andy-murray-predictions","tag-aslan-karatsev","tag-aslan-karatsev-predictions","tag-atp-sydney-predictions","tag-dan-evans","tag-dan-evans-predictions","tag-reilly-opelka","tag-reilly-opelka-predictions","tag-sydney-classic","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}