Miomir Kecmanovic will be up against Mikhail Kukushkin in the first round of the 2020 St. Petersburg Open with the match to be played on Monday or Tuesday, October 12 or 13. The exact timing of the match is yet to be determined. Get the live streaming options of this Miomir Kecmanovic v Mikhail Kukushkin match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Miomir Kecmanovic v Mikhail Kukushkin Head to Head
The world number 41 Kecmanovic and the 88th-ranked Kukushkin have played each other once before this with that meeting coming at the Shanghai Masters last season. Kukushkin had won that first round encounter in straight sets.
Also Read:
Kitzbuhel Winner Kecmanovic in Strife
When he defied odds to lift the trophy at the Kitzbuhel Open in early September, not too many would have expected what was to follow. Kecmanovic participated in the Rome Masters and French Open, both on clay and fell in straight sets in both.
While the French Open defeat wasn’t that big a surprise – he was playing Diego Schwartzman after all – Kecmanovic would have been particularly disappointed by the margin of the loss. Here was a player full of confidence after that Kitzbuhel title and while an opening defeat at Rome might have dented some of it, you wouldn’t expect him to win just four games in the entire French Open opener.
The shift of surfaces will also be an interesting one. Like some of the others, it’s not like Kecmanovic’s performances drop drastically playing outside of clay, and he has a couple of semifinals already this year. The first came in his first tournament of the season at Doha, and he followed that up with a strong performance indoors in New York.
He now goes up against a player who had made the quarterfinals at this tournament last year but hasn’t done too much of note since.
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Kukushkin’s in a Downward Spiral
He hasn’t had a record to fondly remember this year has Kukushkin. The Kazakh is 7-10 on win-loss in 2020, which includes qualifying defeats as well, but there is a silver lining Kukushkin will bank on.
It was his showing at the US Open, where he reached the third round – his joint-best showing at that competition. One of his wins came against Cristian Garin, but the defeat in the third round to Jordan Thompson would have rankled. Earlier, Kukushkin had gone down in his first qualifier at the Cincinnati Open too.
Kukushkin has generally delivered on indoor hard courts though. That quarterfinal at the St. Petersburg Open aside, he had reached the final of the Marseille Open last season, which had included a win over Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov, before he went down to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Can he conjure up that kind of success again here?
Kecmanovic v Kukushkin Prediction and Tip
Not too surprisingly, Kecmanovic starts off as a favourite at 8/13 but we do believe Kukushkin could offer some kind of a fight. Expecting a three-setter here as a result.
Tip: Three sets in the match: 11/8 (bet365)
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The St. Petersburg Open 2020 will be played from October 12 to 18. You can watch & bet on the St. Petersburg Open here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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