tennis | Utorak, Februar 28, 2023 8:39 AM

Tuesday Tennis Best Bet: ATP Dubai, Karen Khachanov vs Botic van de Zandschulp

Jon Reid

Karen Khachanov vs Botic van de Zandschulp Best Bet: Tuesday, February 28th

Well isn’t that a nice way to start the week on the men’s side? Constant pressure on return, very few break points faced, and a dominant win for Yannick Hanfmann.

Onto Tuesday, where we’ll look at a match in Dubai featuring a familiar name. Last week we previewed Botic van de Zandschulp ahead of his match against Alexandre Muller. This week it’s his match against Karen Khachanov that we’ll look into.

In this article:

Karen Khachanov vs Botic van de Zandschulp Preview
Karen Khachanov vs Botic van de Zandschulp Best Bet

Karen Khachanov vs Botic van de Zandschulp Preview

February 28th, 10:00 (UK Time)

You can probably imagine where this preview is going, but needless to say, as strong as van de Zandschulp can be, he’s been nowhere near his best in his last few matches.

The 27-year-old was crushed by Daniil Medvedev in Rotterdam (no shame in that, to be honest), then narrowly escaped a second set against a still returning to top form Ilya Ivashka and was crushed by Muller in Doha.

There are rumours of him trying to play through a potential small injury. I’d be surprised by that considering the proximity on the calendar to Indian Wells and Miami. Still, these two events in the Middle East have some disproportionately high purses, and perhaps there’s some incentive to gut out a few matches for him. He may also be seeded at Indian Wells, so he won’t begin playing there until the first weekend.

Nevertheless, now seems as good a time as any to oppose his poor form, with Khachanov being nice and rested after his run to the Australian Open semifinals.

Considering the Dubai courts play quicker than those in Doha, the adjustment from quick courts down under won’t be so drastic. If I’m not mistaken, they also use the same or similar balls, so the conditions should be to the Russian’s liking.

On top of the conditions, his form and his opponent’s lack of form, Khachanov has the game to trouble van de Zandschulp. His serve is immense and he possesses some big power from the baseline as well.

He shouldn’t have trouble hitting through the Dutchman, especially if there is some sort of injury slightly holding his fitness and movement back.

Karen Khachanov vs Botic van de Zandschulp Best Bet

Another thing working in his favour? The fact that it usually takes a fellow big server and/or power player to beat him. Other than Dan Evans, since his loss at the U.S. Open (where he also reached the semifinals), he’s lost to Novak Djokovic (twice), Sebastian Korda, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev and the big-hitting Brit Jack Draper. That’s nothing to be overly concerned about.

In terms of price, we’re seeing this number under four games, which is more than manageable considering the fact that Khachanov has the bigger game, has been playing much better tennis and this can be done with as little as one break of serve, should the Russian serve first in either set. Happy to back him to win this one by four or more.