The last round of qualifiers and the first round of the main draw at the Stockholm Open 2019 and sixth seeded Britain’s Daniel Evans leads the action. Get the Daniel Evans v Bernard Tomic & Reilly Opelka v Stefano Travaglia tips, previews and predictions below.
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Daniel Evans v Bernard Tomic Predictions & Preview
In what will be the fifth match between Daniel Evans and Bernard Tomic, they will be meeting in the first round at the Stockholm Open on Monday. Before this, it’s been 3-1 in favour of Evans including a win as recently as last week at the Shanghai Masters qualifiers. Evans, unfortunately didn’t make the main draw of that competition though, losing to Jeremy Chardy next round.
It’s been a while since Tomic won against an opponent. I mean, sure, there was a walkover at the China Open qualifiers, but his last match won against someone was in the Rogers Cup qualifiers while it was at Atlanta he won a main draw match.
Evans, now two spots lower than his best ever of 41st in the world, has had a good run in recent times. That Shanghai ouster in the qualifier aside, he has qualified and made the second round at China Open, third round at the US Open along with decent showings in Atlanta and Montreal.
He should start a favourite to win this one but might be stretched to three.
Tip: Evans to win in three sets: 3/1 with Unibet
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Reilly Opelka v Stefano Travaglia Predictions & Preview
Tall-serving and world number 40, Reilly Opelka will take on Italy’s 85th-ranked Stefano Travaglia in their opening round encounter on Monday. Opelka has already won a title this year, and it came on the indoor courts of New York earlier this season. In fact on indoor surfaces, Opelka is 8-1 on indoor hard courts in 2019, and his only loss came at the semifinal stage of the Dallas Challenger.
In New York, the tournament he won, Opelka even managed to defeat John Isner in one of the earlier rounds and that puts him in a good stead for this tournament. He is coming off a semifinal at the Japan Open to go with a second round exit in Shanghai but he should not have too many issues against his Italian opponent.
That’s because Travaglia’s form isn’t the best in the business so far, having played and won most of his matches this season at the Challenger level. The Italian’s best form comes on clay and is 6-7 in indoors even at the lower level tournaments. This should be an easy one for Opelka.
Tip: Opelka to win in straight sets: 10/11 with Unibet
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Alexei Popyrin v Yuichi Sugita Predictions & Preview
Australia’s Alexei Popyrin will be up against Japanese Yuichi Sugita in this first-time encounter for a place in the main draw. And Popyrin, who is just 20, exhibited some of his best tennis in recent times when he made it to the third round at the US Open.
That was followed by a string of difficult results over the next three tournaments but he will now look to shrug that off an try and make it to the main draw again.
Sugita hasn’t won a single main draw match at the ATP level this year, always struggling in the qualifiers. And in the tournaments he has made the main stage, Sugita has lost in the opener. It sounds unlikely, as a result, that Popyrin’s main draw aspirations could well be met.
Tip: Sugita to win in straight sets: 10/11 with Unibet
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Janko Tipsarevic v Corentin Moutet Predictions & Preview
This is the first time that Janko Tipsarevic and Corentin Mautet are facing off against each other at the highest level. Tipsarevic has fallen to 254th in the world with a combination of a ban and fitness issues while Mautet is 15 years his junior and in the top 100.
With Tipsarevic’s form so poor this year – he has a 11-13 record – and Moutet doing his bit at the lower circuit, you would expect the latter to start off as a favourite. A straight-set win expected too.
Tip: Moutet to win in straight sets: 26/25 with Unibet
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