Nick Kyrgios will meet Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the First Round of the 2022 Western and Southern Open. The match will be played on Tuesday August 16th, 2022.
Nick Kyrgios is unseeded here at the Western and Southern Open and is ranked 28th in the world. The Aussie has been arguably the best player in the world over the past few weeks, at one stage winning 15 out of 16 matches including reaching the Wimbledon Final and the title in Washington. He seemed primed to win another title last week in Montreal when his run was cut short by world number 10 Hubert Hurkacz, who won a three set thriller. Kyrgios will be one of the main contenders for the title here in Cincinnati, but you have to wonder if fatigue will be a factor here as he has played a lot of tennis recently. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is a very tricky opponent to face in the First Round and this will be a stern test for the Aussie here.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is ranked 36th in the world and like his opponent Nick Kyrgios is unseeded here at the Western and Southern Open. The Spaniard has been having a very poor season by his standards and has a losing record of 18-19. He suffered a heartbreaking loss last week in Montreal, leading Diego Schwartzman 3-0 in the third set before falling apart. Davidovich Fokina will be hoping to make amends with a strong performance this week but the draw has not been kind, and Nick Kyrgios will have been one of the main players he would be hoping to avoid early on.
This will be a high quality match, and one that I expect Nick Kyrgios to win. If he is fully fit and is not overly fatigued he is able to defeat any player in the world, and while Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is a strong player, he does not have the firepower to defeat the Aussie star. He seems like a man on a mission these days, and has been letting his racquet do the talking, so I am expecting yet another mature performance this week. Kyrgios to win in two tough sets, moving on to the Second Round at the Western and Southern Open.