Winston-Salem Open: Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Ilya Ivashka 8/25/21 Tennis Prediction

Ninth seeded German Jan-Lennard Struff will face Ilya Ivashka of Belarus in the Round of 16 of the 2021 Winston-Salem Open. The match is scheduled to be played on Wednesday August 25th, 2021 at 3:00pm EST.

Jan-Lennard Struff is the ninth seed here at the Winston-Salem Open and will be hoping to continue the momentum that he has built ahead of the US Open. Next up in his path is the unseeded Ilya Ivashka, who has been having a solid season in his own right. The Belarusian has already cause an upset to reach this stage of the competition, can he take it one step further and send Struff packing?

Jan-Lennard Struff is ranked #52 in the ATP world rankings and is the ninth seed here at the 2021 Winston-Salem Open. The German is one of the most inconsistent performers on the ATP Tour despite his immense talent, and has always been a hard player to trust. He has been in terrible form of late, losing in the First Round of the past five tournaments that he has played, and his confidence surely is on the low side. However, he started brightly here in North Carolina, destroying Gianluca Mager 6-2, 6-2. He will have been happy to have broken his losing streak, and will be hoping to go on a winning streak here. He dominated the match from start to finish with his serve, winning a very high percentage of first serve points and will be aiming to do the same here against his Round of 16 opponent Ilya Ivashka. While he is the slight favorite, it will not be easy as his opponent has been in good form and has been creeping up the rankings.

Ilya Ivashka is unseeded here at the 2021 Winston-Salem Open, and is ranked #63 on the ATP Tour, a career high. Despite not being very well known, the Belarusian has been having a solid year, and is certainly capable of the upset here. He recently reached the Quarter-Finals in Eastbourne and the Round of 16 at Wimbledon, defeating top players such as Grigor Dimitrov in the process. He got off to a good start here in North Carolina, defeating both Andreas Seppi and tenth seed Marin Cilic without losing a set. While me may be considered the underdog here against Jan-Lennard Struff I do think that this match is dead even due to Ivashka’s recent form that he has displayed. It is hard to consider his opponent Struff the favorite after his losing streak, and this match is looking like a very close one.

This will be the second time that the two players will be facing each other, with Struff winning their only encounter earlier this year in Munich. It was a straight-sets win on that occasion, but that was on clay and they were in drastically different form at the time so I wouldn’t read too much into it. I think that this will be a much closer match this time around, with both men playing good tennis to reach this stage. Despite his lower ranking, Ivashka has been very impressive over the past few months and this match will be much closer than many expect. However, I am still backing Jan-Lennard Struff to win this match. When it matters most he has a wealth of experience to draw from, and I think that his serve will help him get out of trouble in the close moments. Jan-Lennard Struff will win in three sets here, advancing to the Quarter-Finals of the 2021 Winston-Salem Open.