First round action at the 2020 Pune Open kick-starts on Monday, February 3 with two of seeded players in action and all the information around those matches can be found below. Get the latest Yuichi Sugita v Thomas Fabbiano & Salvatore Caruso v Ramkumar Ramanathan tips, previews and live streams below among other matches.
- Get the best odds for the Pune Open 2020 with bet365 here.
- Also watch the Pune Open 2020 live streaming here
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Yuichi Sugita v Thomas Fabbiano Predictions & Preview
In what will be the second meeting between Sugita and Fabbiano they will face off in the first round at the Maharashtra Open on Monday. The first one had also come on the hard court surface of the Shenzhen Challenger, and Sugita had won that one in straight sets.
However, coming into this one, there’s not much to choose ranking-wise. Sugita, who had recently made it to the second round at the Australian Open before Andrey Rublev ended his stay, is 91st in the world to Fabbiano’s 114th. Fabbiano had been dumped out in the first qualifier at the opening major having only played at the Noumea Challenger before that and reaching the third round.
Given the form going into this one and the obvious – and slight – difference in the ranking, it’s safe to say Sugita will have the edge. He starts off at 4/11 and we are tipping him to take this.
Tip: Sugita to win: 4/11 (Click here to get these odds with bet365)
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Salvatore Caruso v Ramkumar Ramanathan Predictions & Preview
95th-ranked Caruso of Italy will be playing for the third time against India’s Ramanathan in their careers and both matches went to the 27-year-old Italian. Ramanathan is a local, ranked 185th in the world and walks into the tournament as a wild-card. The home conditions should suit him but he has had a poor start to the season.
Ramanathan lost successive matches at the Canberra Challenger and the Australian Open qualifiers, before finally winning back to back encounters at the Bangkok Challenger last week. He was sent out in the quarterfinal by Robin Haase.
It’s not been too much better for Caruso either. He failed to qualify for the Doha Open or Adelaide and in the only main draw match he played – in the Australian Open – Caruso was dumped out in straight sets by Stefanos Tsitsipas. He won just five games in that match.
Which should make this a closer than usual encounter, one that could see Caruso win in three sets.
Tip: Caruso to win in three sets: 10/3 (Click here to get these odds with bet365)
Ivo Karlovic v Cedrik-Marcel Stebe Predictions & Preview
This will be the first meeting between the 124th-ranked Karlovic and the 154th-ranked Stebe and they face off in the opening round at the Pune Open. At 40 years of age, Karlovic is one of the oldest participant at the ATP circuit and enters this tournament on the back of an opening round win at the Australian Open.
The Croat is a former world number 14 and Wimbledon quarterfinalist but his more recent form is bit of a suspect. Last season, he won 22 matches and lost 21, but here’s something to note – he was 15-9 on hard courts. Stebe, on the other hand, is coming off a semifinal at the Noumea Challenger where he lost to Sugita but that was followed by a first round defeat at the hands of Benoit Paire.
Paire was taken to the fifth set though before he lost it 6-0. Can Stebe overcome Karlovic’s booming serve though? We think Karlovic, with his experience of having played in India before, should grab this one.
Tip: Karlovic to win: 4/5 (Click here to get these odds with bet365)
Sumit Nagal v Viktor Troicki Predictions & Preview
22-year-old Sumit Nagal of India had a lot of hopes riding on him coming into this season after he ended the previous one with a 48-23 win-loss record that included a first round match at the US Open against Roger Federer. However, strangely, in the only match he has played this season so far, Nagal lost his qualifier to Mohamed Safwat and he has not played since.
Troicki is a veteran Serbian and a former world number 12, who has made the fourth round at Grand Slams on five separate occasions. However, a run of poor form has taken his ranking to 159th in the world and in conditions which should suit Nagal more than him, the Indian could start off a favourite.
Tip: Nagal to win: 8/11 (Click here to get these odds with bet365)