US Open: Andrey Rublev vs. Ivo Karlovic 8/30/21 Tennis Prediction

Fifth seeded Russian Andrey Rublev will face Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the First Round of the 2021 US Open. The match is scheduled to be played on Monday August 30th, 2021 at approximately 12:15pm EST.

The fifth seeded Russian Andrey Rublev will face Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the First Round of the 2021 US Open. The huge-serving Croatian is playing the Final tournament of his illustrious career, and will be hoping to go out with a bang. Unfortunately he has been handed a very difficult draw and will face Rublev, who is one of the contenders for the title here in New York. Karlovic will always be a dangerous opponent and keep the score close due to his serve, but can he cause the huge upset here and send the fifth seed home?

Andrey Rublev is the fifth seed here at the 2021 US Open and is ranked #7 on the ATP Tour. The Russian has shown tremendous improvement over the past few years, dominating the lower level ATP events on this surface. However, he has continued his evolution and has started challenging for titles at the bigger events, and will be hoping for a deep run here in New York. He enters the US Open in good form, having reached the Final in Cincinnati last week and will be eager to improve on last year’s Quarter-Final exit here in Flushing Meadows. The fifth seed is the heavy favorite here against Ivo Karlovic but is known to struggle against big servers, having lost to John Isner and Reilly Opelka in recent times. If he plays his best then he is heavily favored to advance here but it won’t be easy by any means.

Ivo Karlovic is currently ranked at a lowly #223 in the world and entered the 2021 US Open as a Qualifier. The Croatian is playing the final tournament of his long and storied career, and holds numerous records on the ATP Tour, such as being the all-time aces leader. At 42 years of age he has seen his ranking slide dramatically and is no longer the player that he once was, struggling to put wins together. Earlier on this season he became the oldest man to win a Tour level match when he defeated Pablo Andujar at the Delray Beach Open. He is the massive underdog here against one of the best players in the world in Andrey Rublev but his serve is likely to keep him in the match for a while, and we could even see a tiebreaker or two. As much as tennis fans would like to see a long match, it is unlikely that his body will be able to sustain the pounding that a match against Rublev brings over five sets.

The two players have never met on the ATP Tour, and while I expect this match to be an entertaining one, it almost certainly be Ivo Karlovic’s last. There is almost no way that he will be able to compete with Andrey Rublev over five sets as his fitness and athleticism have declined a lot over the past few seasons. His serve will keep him competitive early on and there will likely be at least one tiebreaker, but expect the Russian to eventually pull away and win in three or four sets, advancing to the Second Round here at the 2021 US Open.