{"id":51098,"date":"2022-07-26T15:59:03","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T19:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=51098"},"modified":"2022-07-26T15:59:03","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T19:59:03","slug":"atp-kitzbuhel-day-3-predictions-thiem-ofner-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2022\/07\/26\/atp-kitzbuhel-day-3-predictions-thiem-ofner-2\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Kitzbuhel Day 3 Predictions Including Dominic Thiem vs Sebastian Ofner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last of the ATP clay-court action continues this week in Kitzbuhel. Day 3 sees the second round get underway, with plenty of mouth-watering clashes to get excited about. As throughout the week, we will be offering up our predictions on the day&#8217;s play. So, who is heading into the next round?<\/p>\n<h2>ATP Kitzbuhel Day 3 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Albert Ramos-Vinolas vs Juan Pablo Varillas<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head: Ramos-Vinolas 2 -0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is one match that all clay court fans should be excited about. Ramos-Vinolas is still playing top level tennis, and to this day remains one of the most consistent players on tour. He is rock solid, a strong ball striker, and has a great tennis IQ. Beating him on clay is a tough task for anyone, and he could well be a contender this week.<\/p>\n<p>Varillas may be somewhat of a late bloomer, with his best tennis being on display at 26 years of age. He gave Felix Auger-Aliassime an almighty fright at the French Open and he&#8217;s constantly proving he can mix it with the best, albeit solely on the clay. Though he&#8217;s playing great, Ramos-Vinolas has all the tools and answers for this matchup. Varillas will come out firing, but the veteran Spaniard was built to grind out wins, ad I expect he&#8217;ll do the same here.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Ramos-Vinolas in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"lVjAUxBfRGd6zaZf0PH47A\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1399328113\" 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:'lVjAUxBfRGd6zaZf0PH47A',sig:'cUhUc_JVyWIwu-jl39mDZaxTshY52Jq1vwJRJOw99sg=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1399328113',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Roberto Bautista Agut vs Jurij Rodionov<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head: First meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bautista Agut is yet to rediscover the form that put him in the top 10, but he&#8217;s still an exceptional player. Despite being a Spaniard, he&#8217;s not particularly suited to the clay. He&#8217;s a good player on the surface, but his best tennis always comes on grass courts and quick hard courts like in Qatar.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/09\/27\/jurij-rodionov-wins-first-grand-slam-match\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Rodionov<\/a> is someone I&#8217;ve had my eye on for a while now. His lefty game is really exciting to watch, and he&#8217;s more than capable of playing at a good level. Unfortunately, he&#8217;s yet to develop a killer weapon and I feel this is holding him back from reaching the top 100. I can see him playing great for a set, especially given he&#8217;s a wildcard at his home tournament. However, Bautista Agut is all too likely grind him down and draw the errors from the Austrian&#8217;s racket.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Bautista Agut in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"a213fRsGSUdcFO4ly_Imyg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1395332885\" 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:'a213fRsGSUdcFO4ly_Imyg',sig:'N0xoUpdCUNwC3SZJstd0gdCqbQF9VXLoP3VSJDRk-8Y=',w:'594px',h:'404px',items:'1395332885',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Jiri Lehecka vs Joao Sousa<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head: First meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lehecka caught the eye of many with his stunning run to the semifinals in Rotterdam this year. Understandably, it&#8217;s taken some adjusting to get up to speed with regular ATP tournaments along with appearances at Challengers. He&#8217;s now doubt an exciting talent, but hasn&#8217;t managed much of a breakthrough run on clay yet.<\/p>\n<p>Sousa is a in a strange patch in his career. After his great comeback to the tour, he&#8217;s been incredibly inconsistent for a while. The Portuguese hits a very hard flat ball, and has the ability to boss his opponents around the court. Unfortunately, it&#8217;s hard to know whether he&#8217;ll come out firing or missing. That said, he looked good in his win over Kopriva and I expect he&#8217;ll have enough to overcome this test.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Sousa in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"_oLQNZGKRhxmH19FNU21kQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1399483605\" 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:'_oLQNZGKRhxmH19FNU21kQ',sig:'qeLOu3Paf30CRnE7K7UyvoR9c53AyQEEhDBI-pnZZgk=',w:'594px',h:'409px',items:'1399483605',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Dominic Thiem vs Sebastian Ofner<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head: Thiem 1 &#8211; 0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How good is to see Dominic Thiem winning again? The 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/us-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">US Open<\/a> champion has been having a torrid time for a while, but it seems that he&#8217;s finally on the right path now. He&#8217;s won five of his last seven matches, and arrived here on the back of quarterfinal in Bastad as well as a semifinal in Gstaad. Thiem looked really good in his straight sets win over Shevchenko, and it looks like his confidence is growing match by match.<\/p>\n<p>Ofner, a fellow Austrian, pulled off a fantastic upset on Tuesday. Not many would have expected it, but he did an immense job to topple the crafty Frenchman. This will be a tough test, one would think. Ofner has no real weapons, and the former #3&#8217;s groundstrokes are certainly returning to full power. A resurgent Dominic Thiem means potentially bad news for the ATP players who&#8217;ve benefited from his absence, and he will take some stopping this week if he keeps this up. Thiem should be too good here.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Thiem in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo from Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last of the ATP clay-court action continues this week in Kitzbuhel. Day 3 sees the second round get underway, with plenty of mouth-watering clashes to get excited about. As throughout the week, we will be offering up our predictions on the day&#8217;s play. So, who is heading into the next round? ATP Kitzbuhel Day [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3775,"featured_media":50836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[450,15550,7611,17950,208,15708,13325,17201,357,15607,9166,16278,6452,16060,447,15519,1342,16058,2373,2369],"class_list":["post-51098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-albert-ramos-vinolas","tag-albert-ramos-vinolas-predictions","tag-atp-kitzbuhel-predictions","tag-austrian-open-kitzbuhel-predictions","tag-dominic-thiem","tag-dominic-thiem-predictions","tag-jiri-lehecka","tag-jiri-lehecka-predictions","tag-joao-sousa","tag-joao-sousa-predictions","tag-juan-pablo-varillas","tag-juan-pablo-varillas-predictions","tag-jurij-rodionov","tag-jurij-rodionov-predictions","tag-roberto-bautista-agut","tag-roberto-bautista-agut-predictions","tag-sebastian-ofner","tag-sebastian-ofner-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51098","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\/3775"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}