Hubert Hurkacz vs Felix Auger-Aliassime Prediction – Tennis Picks 10-29-2023

Fourth seed Hurbert Hurkacz will take on defending champion Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final of the 2023 Swiss Indoors in Basel. The match will be played on Sunday, October 29.

Hubert Hurakcz chose the long route to victory, beating an inspired Ugo Humbert 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 in a match that lasted 20 minutes shy of three hours. The Pole had the match on his racket when he served for it at 5-3 in the decider. But he couldn’t close out the victory and then let slip two match points in the very next game on the Frenchman’s serve before the set went into a tiebreak. There, Hurkacz wasted three more match points. But fittingly, he overcame that mishap and finished off Humbert with a bullet serve down the T to clinch victory.

Felix Auger-Aliassime, meanwhile, won the latest sequel between himself and Holger Rune. In a repeat of last year’s final, it was the same outcome but much more convincing as Auger-Aliassime advanced into his first final of the season with a merited 6-3, 6-2 win in 83 minutes. The defeat is likely to salvage the Canadian’s season, arriving in Basel with just three ATP wins since the start of June. His ranking was expected to take a massive dip next week, but that is unlikely to happen after a productive week at the Swiss Indoors, standing within one win from retaining his crown.

In three head-to-head meetings, it is Felix Auger-Aliassime who leads the series 2-1. Hubert Hurkacz, however, won their last duel in Halle last year in two tiebreak sets. A good way to approach this match is to look at the total number of games to be won by either player. The defending champion has dropped just one set en route to the final, which came in the last eight against a red-hot Alexander Shevchenko. It wasn’t his best performance, but won the points that mattered. This should be a tight match pitting two players who don’t give away plenty of chances on serve and there is good reason we’ll get at least one tiebreak set. Hurkacz is playing for more than just a title on Sunday. If he wins, he’ll move within 15 points of Holger Rune for that coveted eighth spot in the ATP race. If you’re looking for a money line pick, Hurkacz gets our vote at -167, and taking the Pole to cover the over 13.5 total games at +106 is worth a small investment.