Rogers Cup: Nick Kyrgios vs. Reilly Opelka 8/9/21 Tennis Prediction

Nick Kyrgios meets Reilly Opelka in the first round of the 2021 Rogers Cup on Monday, August 9th 2021. Who will make their way to the third round?

Will we see the resurgence of the Nick Kyrgios we all know and love to see play on the tennis courts or will Reilly Opelka find his form and servebot his way through this entertaining encounter in Toronto?

Reilly Opelka has not shown much greatness in the singles circuit of the ATP Tour this year, losing more matches than he has won and really just not finding his groove early enough in tournaments, meaning he gets knocked out in the first or second round. Reilly needs to change this up because it is a slippery slope once you start going down the rankings and he will need to work hard on his game to ensure he can change it not to just be focused on hitting aces all the time, but rather be able to play long and draining rallies consistently without making errors.

Nick Kyrgios has been struggling mentally with motivation in tennis recently and he has been public about voicing these struggles. Nick knows he is a great player but he is unsure whether he has the motivation to continue travelling week after week and playing. Nick needs some solid wins in my opinion to help with this as he has played little in 2021, meaning that he is still not at his best. Nick can definitely find some form here in Toronto and perhaps get one step closer to finding what he is looking for.

This is going to be the 1^st meeting between both players, and I believe this is going to be a tight match between these two. Reilly Opelka has a huge serve and he will aim to keep things tight until tiebreaks where he aims to win. However, Nick also has a huge serve and he has one of the best games in the game from the back of the court. I expect Reilly to serve well, but Nick will be able to return them and hurt the American who just does not know how to rally consistently.