The Tennis continues at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Felix Auger-Aliassime - 3.5 games v Andy Murray: A strong opening Doubles win will have given Andy Murray a real boost at the Olympic Games in Tokyo as he partnered up with Joe Salisbury to dump the Number 2 Seeds out of the tournament. The British player is also a double defending Gold Medal winner having picked up the top prize in London in 2012 and Rio in 2016, although Andy Murray is some way from the form of five years ago when he finished the year as the World Number 1.
Injuries have prevented Andy Murray from playing on the Tour to the standard he has set in his career, while it has felt like one step forward, two steps backwards as he bids to make a full time return to the Tour. Unsurprisingly the lack of tennis is beginning to impact the World Ranking as the Tour gets set to return to the 12 month Rankings that had been moved aside to cover for the Covid-19 pandemic which began sixteen months ago.
Andy Murray is currently outside the top 100 of the World Rankings and he was questioning his future in the sport after a one-sided Third Round loss at Wimbledon earlier this month. Some of that has been put down to the emotion of losing after a couple of tough wins, but Murray is going to have to raise his level significantly if he is going to take on some of the young guns on the ATP Tour who are beginning to make a big impact.
He faces one of those in the First Round at the Tokyo Olympics as Murray has been paired up to play Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The young Canadian reached the Wimbledon Quarter Final earlier this month and he is beginning to show improvement in a lot of aspects of his tennis which will make Felix Auger-Aliassime a threat as the Tour moves back to the hard courts. Earlier this year, Auger-Aliassime put together some solid results on the hard courts and he is beginning to back up a very good serve with an improved return game that will put Andy Murray under immense pressure in this First Round match.
We all know that Andy Murray is a solid return player, but he lost his two hard court matches against top 100 Ranked opponents pretty handily earlier in 2021. In those two matches, Murray struggled with his return and his own serve has proven to be vulnerable which should give Felix Auger-Aliassime an edge in this match.
There shouldn't be any intimidation on the part of the young Canadian going up against one of the big names of the ATP Tour from recent seasons. These two met at the US Open and Felix Auger-Aliassime crushed Andy Murray in straight sets while not giving up a single break point and working his way into the Murray service games often.
Felix Auger-Aliassime has also beaten Roger Federer on a grass court last month and I think he is going to have too much for Andy Murray as he ends the British player's reign as the current Olympic Champion.
Andrey Rublev - 3.5 games v Kei Nishikori: There are plenty of reasons to be disappointed watching sports without the fans, but for Kei Nishikori it will be a particularly sad moment as he gets set to begin his home Olympic Games in the Tennis event. The year postponement of the Games has at least given Nishikori a chance to get ready to compete, but the veteran former top ten player is not the performer he once was and I think this is a very difficult opening match for him.
With the support from the stands you could have imagined Kei Nishikori producing at a higher level than he has shown in 2021, but the lack of a crowd could make it tough to turn the momentum of a match if it begins to go against him.
Earlier this year, Kei Nishikori had a mixed time on the hard courts and he is coming in off a disappointing showing at Wimbledon which means this is a player who is perhaps not as confident going into the Olympic Games tournament as he would have wanted to be. Kei Nishikori has a 6-7 record on the hard courts in 2021 having missed the 2020 season, while his numbers are inconsistent too which suggests he is going to have to dig very deep to find a way to compete in this First Round match.
In those hard court matches, Kei Nishikori has only held 74% of the service games played, while the return performance has not been enough to make up for a vulnerable serve. Now the home hope is going to be facing Andrey Rublev who has shown consistency across the board in his performances over the last eighteen months and the Russian is also very comfortable playing on the hard courts.
Andrey Rublev feels like he is most comfortable on the hard courts and the level produced in 2021 is highly encouraging. A couple of titles and multiple runs to the Semi Final of other tournaments shows a consistency that might be too much for Kei Nishikori to deal with, while Andrey Rublev has held 88% of his service games played and broken in 28% of return games played.
Three years ago Kei Nishikori did beat Andrey Rublev on a hard court, but much has changed for both of these players since then. Nowadays it is the latter who has become one of the leading players on the ATP Tour and I think Andrey Rublev will get some revenge over Kei Nishikori by dumping him out of his home Olympics.
Karen Khachanov - 3.5 games v Yoshihito Nishioka: There will be plenty of eyes on Japanese Tennis on Day 2 at the Olympic Games Tennis tournament, although the lack of fans does not really help the home players. One of the younger Japanese players will begin their bid to win the Gold Medal on Sunday when Yoshihito Nishioka takes to the court, although we have yet to see the lefty reach the kind of potential that he was once thought to possess.
Injuries have not helped, and over the last twelve months Yoshihito Nishioka has a significant losing record which is likely going to hurt his World Ranking once the Tour moves back into a regular Ranking system. A poor grass court season means confidence is not going to be in the best place for Yoshihito Nishioka going into the Olympic Games and his hard court performances earlier in 2021 does not offer much encouragement either.
Yoshihito Nishioka has a 2-7 record on the hard courts in 2021 and both wins came in the same tournament in Singapore, while the 25 year old has lost his last four hard court matches. The lefty should get more out of his serve, but Nishioka has only held 62% of the service games played on this surface and it has put him under pressure on the return where Yoshihito Nishioka has only managed to break in 19% of return games played.
It is going to be a huge challenge for Yoshihito Nishioka to take on Karen Khachanov fresh off a Quarter Final run at Wimbledon and especially as the latter has produced much stronger form on the hard courts. The Russian may actually feel he has been underperforming over the last twelve months, but the wins at Wimbledon will be a huge boost to the confidence and moving back onto his favourite surface has to be another boost for Khachanov.
Karen Khachanov has dropped out of the top 20 of the World Rankings, but his strong serving should give him a real edge in this match. Where Nishioka has struggled to hold serve, Karen Khachanov has held 87% of the service games played on the hard courts and he also has a slightly higher break percentage on the hard courts compared with his opponent.
Their sole meeting came at the Australian Open in 2019 and Karen Khachanov won in straight sets against Yoshihito Nishioka. The Russian dominated the return numbers on the day and doubled the amount of break points created and I do think Khachanov will be able to dictate the tempo of the match and eventually cover the handicap mark on his way through to the Second Round.
MY PICKS: Felix Auger-Aliassime - 3.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet365 (2 Units)
Andrey Rublev - 3.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)
Karen Khachanov - 3.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (2 Units)
Veronika Kerdermetova + 4.5 Games @ 1.91 Paddy Power (2 Unitss)
Ons Jabeur - 5.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)
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