In a battle of two players looking to gain their rhythm back, the 20th ranked Felix Auger-Aliassime will be up against Nikoloz Basilashvili who is ranked 27th in the world in the first round of the Western & Southern Open 2020 on Saturday, August 22. This match is scheduled to begin at 11 am local time (4 pm BST). Get the live streaming options of this Felix Auger-Aliassime v Nikoloz Basilashvili match along with its preview, head to head and tips here.
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Felix Auger-Aliassime v Nikoloz Basilashvili Head to Head
This will be the third meeting between the pair. They met twice last year on the clay courts at Lyon and on the hard courts of Miami. The Canadian won on both occasions.
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Auger-Aliassime Looking to Recapture Form
After a breakthrough 2019 season where Auger-Aliassime started the season outside of the top 100 and eventually achieved his career-best ranking of 17, expectations were high from him at the start of this season. And the rising Canadian star had a very impressive start to the season as well.
In February, he made it to the back to back ATP finals in Rotterdam and Marseille. But he failed to lift his maiden title losing in the finals of both those competitions. He could not continue his impressive run for much longer as the season came to a grinding halt on 12 March.
Just before the season resumed, Auger-Aliassime said that he felt that he was in very good shape physically and wanted to continue where he left off. But he did look rusty at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown in France losing two out of the three matches he played.
His record on the hard courts though leaves much to desire. This season he has only won five out of 13 matches on the surface. He will have to find his feet quickly if he wants to make a strong impression in Cincinnati. He will be looking to improve upon his first-round exit from the event last year.
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Basilashvili Looking Short of Match Practice
Basilashvili became the first Georgian to win a senior ATP title when he won the German Open in Hamburg two years ago. Since then he has been one of the most consistent performers on the tour and has won two further titles as well. On the back of that consistency, he even reached his career-best ranking of 16 last year.
But this season, the 28-year-old has struggled for form and rhythm. He has failed to win more than one match in any of the six events he has taken part in. And after the season resumed, he played at the International Premier League in Germany but lost both his matches.
A win in the first round will go a long way into finally kick-starting his season. Although his 4-7 win-loss record this year doesn’t inspire much confidence, he can take heart from the fact that all four of his wins this season came on hard court.
Felix Auger-Aliassime v Nikoloz Basilashvili Prediction & Tip
Both the players are going into this match on the back of rusty performances. Basilashvili has fared slightly better on the fast hard courts then Auger-Aliassime but the Canadian looked better in terms of fitness then Georgian since the season resumed.
The fact that Auger-Aliassime has won both the prior meetings against Basilashvili swill give him an edge. He starts the match as a slight favourite.
Tip: Auger-Aliassime to win in three sets: 6/4 (bet365)
You can watch & bet on the Cincinnati Open on Saturday, August 22 here. Get the latest tennis predictions and tips here.
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