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Karen Khachanov vs. Jan-Lennard Struff 9/22/20 Hamburg Open Tennis Pick, Odds, and Prediction


2020-09-22 00:00:00 EDT

Karen Khachanov meets Jan-Lennard Struff in the first round of the 2020 Hamburg Open. Will it be the Russian to come through or will it be the big swinging German?

Jan-Lennard Struff is the German crowd favourite this week as his compatriot, Alexander Zverev, decided not to play in the tournament after going extremely deep at the US Open, reaching the final. Struff, however, has been struggling over the last few weeks as he has not been able to give us solid performances as we usually expect from him. Struff has a big serve, however, this does not help him too much on clay as the ball just moves a little bit slower on the court. Struff knows his level needs to improve drastically if he is to go far here in Hamburg, but he knows that in the big moments he can turn it on as we have seen him do in the past.

Karen Khachanov will start to feel like he is the underperforming Russian out of the three young stars (Khachanov, Medvedev, Rublev), and I think he is going to have the motivation and the determination to do some big things in the next year or two. Khachanov comes into this tournament off of a tough loss in the first round in Rome, to the eventual semifinalist, Casper Ruud in 3 sets. Ruud had been playing amazing tennis and you cannot blame him for losing to Ruud in the first round. However, he needs a bounce back victory here in order to get his confidence up going into Roland Garros next week.

This is going to be the third meeting between both players, with the head to head evenly poised at 1-1. They have never met on clay before, playing twice last year on hard and on grass. I expect this match to be like their prior encounters, going to 3 sets and being extremely tight. But looking at their performances in the last 2/3 weeks, both on hard and on the clay, I think Karen Khachanov is better poised to come out on top in this one. Struff is struggling with his game at the moment, whilst Khachanov has just had some bad luck.

Liam Elyes's Free Pick: Karen Khachanov to win

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Liam Elyes

Elyes is a huge tennis fan, having followed the sport since a young age. Often going to many tournaments, and having learnt a lot about the ins and outs of the game, Elyes always aims to find the best bets possible for profits. From ATP 250s to Grand Slam tournaments, Elyes covers all the important matches on the ATP and WTA Tour.

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