Miomir Kecmanovic vs Juncheng Shang Prediction, Stats, Form, H2H, 3/20/24

My final article of the day from the Miami Open will be my Kecmanovic vs  Shang prediction in the ATP draw. Shang’s win probability is only 42.6% while Kecmanovic is favored to win at 1.65 odds. The handicap is two games and the total games line is 22.5. For more daily tennis tips, visit the bettingexpert community. But if you want more expert tips from Jon Reid, visit our Expert Insights section. Our Kecmanovic vs Shang prediction is for Shang to win.

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Kecmanovic vs Shang Prediction: Talented Young Gun to Push Kecmanovic

• Prediction: Shang to win
• Best Odds: 2.35
• Bookmaker: Pinnacle
• Stakes: 3/10

Odds as at 2:30 am UK Time on March 20th, 2024. Odds may now differ.

This is a match where both players have been lauded for their talent since their days as stars on the junior circuit. But I’m going to side with the younger, upstart underdog here.

Though he’s had his problems staying on the court consistently, I do like a few things about Shang’s game that should make this very close and ripe for an upset.

First, I think his forehand is a tad more dynamic than Kecmanovic. He hits it just as well and in neutral rallies, I prefer the fact that he can hit it anywhere on the court a bit more reliably than his Serbian counterpart.

The second is that I trust his base level just a bit more of the two. He is known for playing longer matches and sometimes hitting confounding shots. However, Shang doesn’t experience the dips that Kecmanovic can. That comes with the territory for Kecmanovic, who does tend to hit smaller targets. That can produce some great shots when he’s hitting his spots but also leads to error after error when he starts missing at the margins.

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Miomir Kecmanovic Recent Form

Other than his second-week appearance at the Australian Open the 24-year-old hasn’t been the most convincing player on tour.

He’s been bounced from tournaments in his first match three times. In his second match another couple of times, and lost his lone rubber in Davis Cup action.

He’s been surprisingly strong backing up his first serve and his forehand has looked decent when he’s in attack. But he’s been error-prone far too often and does struggle to maintain his strong patches of play with how little margins he hits some shots with.

I’m not convinced by his form and don’t think his game is at a level that would afford him this kind of respect in the markets to offset the poor form.

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Juncheng Shang Recent Form

The 2005-born Shang has been on the radar of many tennis fans for several years, despite his young age. In fact, his frequent appearances via wild card in recent years in this Masters event kind of speaks to his potential.

The Miami Open license is held by IMG, who often put their big prospects in both the main and qualifying draws. One isn’t usually represented by IMG unless they have a high ceiling talent-wise.

Shang started his season off about as well as he could have expected, reaching the semifinals in Hong Kong. He even took the opening set off of Andrey Rublev and put himself ever-so-close to the final.

He also reached the third round in Melbourne at the Australian Open and then qualified in Indian Wells. He then put up an uncharacteristically poor performance in the second round against Alexander Bublik.

I’m not sure there’s enough form-wise or talent-wise to have him as a fairly clear underdog in this matchup anymore. This is why I’ll go ahead and take the odds well above evens.

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Miomir Kecmanovic vs Juncheng Shang H2H – Stat of the Match

We haven’t seen these two square off on the professional circuit yet. In terms of elo rating on hard courts, this is the rare match where we see the underdog actually have a better rating – though it is by just a few points.

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