Marcos Baghdatis VS Andrey Rublev Prediction :

Rublev vs. Baghdatis / Australian Open – We haven’t witnessed to any spectacular surprise on the first day of Australian Open. All major favourites have won but we will list among not expected results defeats of K. Anderson, L. Pouille and J. Isner. First match of the second round that we are going to analyse is the one between Cypriot M. Baghdatis and Russian A. Rublev. Begins: 17.01.2018 – 01:00 CET
A. Rublev

It is interesting that Rublev reached the best rating in his career in this season, or more precisely seven days ago when he lost to G. Monfils in the final of tournament in Doha. Of course, the progress would be impossible if Rublev didn’t play well last year when he won the first title in his career. He won it after he defeated P. Lorenzi in the final of tournament in Umag. Besides the final in Doha, Rublev had lost another final match near the end of previous year when H. Chung defeated him in the final of Next Gen Finals tournament in Milan.

In the first round Rublev had a difficult task given that his opponent was experienced and persistent D. Ferrer. The match was expectedly uncertain and Rublev needed a bit less than four hours to win 3-2 in sets. What could be highlighted from this match is statistic regarding number of directly won points that was by far on side of the Russian player 77-32.
M. Baghdatis

Baghdatis downfall in the ATP list is still on-going and he comes to the Australian Open as World’s no. 123. That is very far from his best rating that he held in 2006 when he occupied the 8th place in the ATP rank list. In 15 years of professional career the Cypriot managed to win four ATP titles, out of which the last one in 2010 at the tournament in Winston-Salem. Baghdatis spent a larger part of previous season playing at Challenger series of tournaments, while before the Australian Open he hasn’t played a single preparatory tournament.

In the first round Baghdatis won Y. Bhambry, World’s no. 119, and the final result read 7-6, 6-4, 6-3. As it can be seen the two players have similar rating but Baghdatis career was far more exciting and in the end the experience tipped the scales in his favour. Bhambry hit more winters 33-24 and served better 1st serve 72%-79% but that was not enough to defeat Baghdatis.
A. Rublev – M. Baghdatis PICK

The two players have never met before. Clearly, Baghdatis is more experienced and on top of it he had much easier opponent in the first round, which allowed him to spent two hours fewer on the court than Rublev. On the other hand, if Rublev, who is 20 years old, has problem to play five sets than he has nothing to do at a Grand Slam tournament. The Russian belong to group of younger players from whom lot is expected in the coming period. He started well this season and we believe that he can defeat Baghdatis without losing more than one set. So bet on our tennis prediction of today:

Prediction Today: Rublev -1.5 sets

Stake: 5/10

Odds: 1.65