Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania, seeded two, will play Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic in the semi-final of the ATP Pune Open on Saturday, February 8. The match is scheduled for 5 pm local time (11.30 am BST) and you can find the Ricardas Berankis v Jiri Vesely live streaming options along with its preview, head to head and tips here.
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Ricardas Berankis v Jiri Vesely Head to Head
The pair have never played each other before. This will be the first meeting between the 29 year old Lithuanian and the Czech player, who is three years younger than him.
Berankis Bidding for Third ATP Final
Although he has been a successful performer on the Challenger circuit, winning thirteen events, including four last year, Berankis has never won a senior ATP title. The closest he has been were two finals – the Los Angeles Open in 2012, and the Kremlin Cup in 2017.
He is unlikely to have many better chances this year to make it to a third final, especially give the weakened field that entered the tournament in Pune.
Not that it has all been plain sailing this week. Having been given a first round bye, he beat the German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany in straight sets on Wednesday. However, his quarter-final match with Yuichi Sugita of Japan, the number five seed, was a much closer affair.
Sugita won the first set, and, having broken the Berankis serve early in the second time, three times came within a point of establishing a 3 – 0 lead in the second. However, each time, Berankis upped his game, fended off the challenge from Sugita, and then levelled the match.
It was his turn to break early in the third set, and he would go on to break once more, before closing out the match in two hours and 16 minutes.
Vesely Survived Two Match Points in His Quarter-Final
Like Berankis, it has been a number of years since Vesely was in a senior ATP final, although, unlike the Lithuanian, he has won an event on the main tour, the Auckland Open in 2015. Still it has been almost five years since he was competing at that elite level, and, at one point on Friday afternoon, it did not seem he would have a chance to get that far.
That was when his match with Ilya Ivashka of Belarus went into a third set tie break. Ivashka had dominated the first set, but Vesely fought back in equally comprehensive fashion, and nothing could divide them in the third.
The tie-break saw fortunes fluctuate, and Vesely found himself facing two match points. He dug deep, saved them all, and then forced the decisive mini-break which he converted to clinch the set 13 – 11. The match lasted more than two and a half hours.
Ricardas Berankis v Jiri Vesely Predictions & Tips
This is an excellent chance for either man to make the final of an ATP event for the first time in a number of years, and both will be eager to grasp the opportunity. Berankis is the higher ranked player and the seed, however, and may just have the edge.
Tip: Berankis to win in three sets: 7/2 (Click here to get these odds with Unibet)
You can watch & bet on Berankis v Vesely on Saturday, February 8 here. Get the latest tennis predictions and tips here.
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