Tennis Picks 2022 (February 17th)

A horrible day for the favourites in Dubai on Wednesday hurt the Tennis Picks, but I was also on the wrong end of a couple of bits of bad luck.

That is no excuse in what has been a very tough week, but I still have a chance to turn things back around.

Marton Fucsovics - 2.5 games v Nikoloz Basilashvili: He has had a miserable start to the 2022 season, but Nikoloz Basilashvili had a similar kind of opening to 2021.

Arriving in Doha sparked something as the Georgian went on to win the title here, and he has made a positive start to the defence of that title. Nikoloz Basilashvili had not won a match in 2022 before the tough victory over Elias Ymer, but you have to wonder if he is set for another title run having done the same last season.

His numbers have unsurprisingly been pretty poor for a player that had lost every match so far this season, but Nikoloz Basilashvili will hope the win in the Second Round can be a positive spark for him. It was the best returning day of his season, but Basilashvili has continued to struggle behind serve and he has only held 63% of his service games played.

Next up for him is Marton Fucsovics who has had a pretty inconsistent start to 2022, but who has won two matches in Doha to make himself feel better. The hard court numbers over the last twelve months gives Fucsovics a slight advantage over his opponent in this Quarter Final, but like Basilashvili, the Hungarian has struggled with his return so far in 2022 and will have to improve markedly if he is going to find more consistency in his results.

Marton Fucsovics has had a good tournament so far though and that should give him the confidence to win this match.

He has a winning record against Nikoloz Basilashvili and Marton Fucsovics has a significant edge in the returning numbers in their four previous hard court matches. The most recent was won by Nikoloz Basilashvili at the US Open in 2019, but even on that day it was Marton Fucsovics who created more break points.

i think he is going to have the slight edge on the return in this match and it could give the favourite enough of an opportunity to cover this handicap mark.

MY PICKS: Marton Fucsovics - 2.5 Games @ 1.91 Paddy Power (2 Units)

Karen Khachanov @ 1.80 Bet365 (2 Units)