The ATP Cincinnati competition commences in relatively low key fashion as the Western & Southern Open starts off with a couple of matches on Sunday evening even though the previous Masters 1000 event still hasn’t concluded.
Such is the modern sporting world every possible opening is taken advantage of to get some action in and that is the case on Sunday when four players will look to move into the second round and book a date with one of the big boys.
Center Court
Miomir Kecmanovic vs Benoit Paire
The opening match of the tournament sees the promising youngster Miomir Kecmanovic, who is just in danger of not building on the bright start he made to his career, taking on the enigmatic French player Benoit Paire who is never a sure thing in terms of fulfilling his talent at the best of times.
Paire goes into this match having won just two of the 13 hard court matches he has played since the tour returned in this tournament almost this time last year. One of those he needed three sets to see off the world number 125 and the other was last week in Toronto against McKenzie McDonald who might have been jaded after his exploits in Washington the week before. Kecmanovic hasn’t won a whole lot more matches but he does tend to win his first round games before falling to the better opposition in the next outing. I suspect that might happen here too. The record of Paire since this tournament last year is no longer a surprise to us because he has made no secret of his hatred for the bubble life and some of his behaviour in that time has been shocking to say the least. Kecmanovic should just need to be solid to come through here and if he is that he can cover 2.5 games.
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David Goffin vs Guido Pella
The evening session match on Sunday sees the 2019 finalist David Goffin looking to ignite another deep run in this part of the world when he goes up against the Argentine player Guido Pella who gets in here courtesy of his protected ranking.
These two men are both returning from injury this week. Goffin hasn’t played since Halle while the most recent outing for Pella was at Wimbledon so there are question marks over both men here, not least because their form in the lead up to those troubles was ordinary to say the least. Goffin looks incredibly short to me here but there are just so many question marks over the form and fitness of Pella that I can’t bring myself to take him on. I certainly don’t want anything to do with Goffin at the prices so the easiest thing to do is to leave this one well alone.
Tips
Back M.Kecmanovic (-2.5 games) to beat B.Paire for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betway
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