The first-round action of the Astana Open in Kazakhstan will see Argentina’s Federico Delbonis, the world number 76, take on world number 89, Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan on Tuesday, October 26. The match is likely to start sometime after 12 pm local time (7 am BST or 2 am Eastern Time). Get the live streaming options of this Federico Delbonis v Mikhail Kukushkin match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Federico Delbonis v Mikhail Kukushkin Head to Head
This will be the third competitive meeting between the two players. Both the players have won one match each so far. Their first-ever meeting was back in 2013 when Kukushkin won in the quarter-finals at the US Open. But Delbonis avenged that loss one year later on the clay courts of Nice.
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Delbonis Has a Poor Record on Indoor Hard Courts
The Argentine’s overall record on the indoor hard courts is very much below par at 16-28. And that is understandable considering the fact that over 80% of his career wins have come on the red soil. The southpaw is a clay-court specialist and hardly plays any non-clay events these days.
But the fact that Astana Open was organised due to the cancellations of many other events, it has given Delbonis a chance to feature on indoor hard courts.
Purely from a results point of view, the 30-year-old has had a decent season. He has reached three-quarter finals this season at Santiago, Kitzbuhel and Sardinia. And the Argentine also made it to the last four at the Parma Challenger at the start of this month.
Though he would be disappointed by the fact that he got knocked out in the first round at the Roland Garros in a gruelling five-set match by fellow Argentine, Juan Ignacio Londero. It was a marathon match that ended 14-12 in favour of Londero in the deciding set.
Currently ranked 76th in the world, Delbonis would be looking to gain some points and climb up the ranking this week. He pretty much has a free hit with this unplanned appearance at Astana and the fact that not much is expected of him. This will give him a great chance to express himself and shock a few opponents.
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Kukushkin Having a Disappointing Season So Far
Contrary to his opponent, the Kazakh player will be happy to see fast indoor courts for more than one reason. Firstly, Kukushkin has a very impressive 126-80 record on the surface. Although he is an all-round player across all surfaces but the faster, quicker indoor courts suit his game very well.
And the second reason is that he has had an underwhelming season so far, to say the least.
Kukushkin has won only seven matches this season, with three of them being at the qualifying stages. And except his third-round appearance at the US Open, he has not won more than one main draw match at any event this year. Although his second-round win over Christian Garin in a five-set thriller was his best performance of the year. He hasn’t been able to back it up with anything substantial.
His poor end to the last season and a below-par one this year has seen his rankings drop from 39 at one point to 89 at the moment. He will also be looking to go deep this week and gain some crucial ranking points.
Federico Delbonis v Mikhail Kukushkin Prediction and Tip
Kukushkin will start the match as a strong favourite. Delbonis doesn’t quite have the game to trouble the Kazakh in these conditions.
Tip: Kukushkin to win in straight sets: 1/1 (bet365)
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The Astana Open 2020 will be played from October 26 to November 1. You can watch & bet on the Astana Open here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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