ATP Tokyo tournament, 1st round, Monday, 10/16/2023
Alexander Zverev is looking forward to this tournament tremendously! The 26-year-old is competing in the ATP tournament in Tokyo, so he is on the courts on which he won his Olympic gold in 2021.
On Monday, he will attack in the first round. German spectators will have to get up early to cheer on the nation’s number one. At 05:20 he will serve against Jordan Thompson.
At the 500 tournament, he wants to collect more important points to be part of the ATP Finals 2023. I give a prediction for the match in my Thompson Zverev tip.
Two times Zverev could already win the ATP Finals, so he is considered a two-time tennis world champion. Due to the severe ligament tear injury he suffered in Paris 2022, he needs to earn more points for Turin.
Since he was unable to play a match after the 2022 French Open, he currently gets points added for every tournament he plays. His chances are good, since Holger Rune has been in a slump of form lately, and Taylor Fritz has also stumbled recently.
There are 500 points up for grabs at the Japan Open. He faces Jordan Thompson (3.95 odds) in his first round match. Betano unsurprisingly sees Zverev (1.26) ahead.
Zverev’s bitter loss in his opening match in Shanghai against Roman Safiullin doesn’t change anything. He defeated the Russian in the final of Chengdu and bagged 250 points for the world ranking.
The four matches in Chengdu were followed by four more in Beijing. Only long-time rival Daniil Medvedev, who has already played Zverev five times this year, was able to stop the German in the semifinals: 6-4, 6-3.
Six out of eight matches went over three sets, seven times he had to go via tiebreak within a good week. The air was out at the start in Shanghai. After ten days, Zverev is back on the court again.
He returns to the place where he celebrated his greatest tennis success to date, winning Olympic gold in 2021. After all, the Olympic matches were also played at the Ariake Tennis Park.
The German feels at home on the fast Tokyo courts, took Novak Djokovic out of the field in the semifinals and spoiled the Serb’s chance for the Golden Slam, which only Steffi Graf has managed so far in 1988.
Instead of Djokovic, he will face Thompson for the second time on Monday. In the only match so far in 2017, Zverev, then just 20, won in three sets: 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Smooth victories have been lacking for Zverev lately. Zverev has won only one of his last ten matches without losing a set. Therefore, there are no too high odds waiting for Thompson to win the set: 2.00.
The statistics speak against Zverev, who is, however, the clearly stronger player and, due to the long match, gets quite high odds of 1.75 for Betano to win 2:0.
Thompson failed last like Zverev in the first match of Shanghai. The 148 of the world, Terence Atmane prevailed in three rounds. In Chengdu and at the US Open, the man from Sydney had to retire due to injury.
My Thompson Zverev Tip
Admittedly, in a hurry Zverev could not defeat his last opponents. In four of his last seven matches, the German won from a set down. Will it also be complicated in the first match against Thompson?
I don’t think so. Zverev is one of the pros with the strongest defense and Thompson has struggled with his first serve in recent matches.
I expect the German to be dangerous in Thompson’s service games and to serve well himself. Eight games in a row at least 75 percent of his first serves were successful!
My Thompson Zverev tip: 2:0 for Zverev
