Viktor Troicki vs Miomir Kecmanovic Tennis Betting Tips - 6/27/2019

Viktor Troicki vs Miomir Kecmanovic

6 am EST, 27th June 2019

ATP Antalya, Turkey

Grass courts

Troicki with 4 wins in 5 days at this tournament already. His ranking was not good enough to get into the main draw directly, so he had to go through 2 qualifying rounds this past weekend. He was walking on thin ice vs Ortega-Olmedo on Sunday, being forced to save 3 match points. He got out of that situation without being hurt, came back from set down to win that match, and today he eliminated the No.1 seed of the main draw - Benoit Paire. It was a highly entertaining match, not only because we could see some decent tennis from time to time, but mostly because of Paire's antics throughout the match. He is someone who is known to lack effort from time to time, especially in smaller tournaments with difficult conditions. In this one, the heat was a big factor which bothered the Frenchman. At first, he was moving very slowly around the court, coming to the net with bad approach shots and trying to shorten the points as much as possible. After that, he decided that he will lay on the ground during the changeovers. After calling for a medical time-out, being break down in the first set, he suddenly found some energy, got the re-break and pushed the set into a tie-breaker, which he lost. That resulted in tearing the sleeves of his shirt and playing sleeveless until the end of the match. But even with Paire not looking very interested in this match, we should still give a lot of credit to Troicki for staying composed in all this madness and winning in two tight sets. He played a solid grass court tennis, returning well and being very efficient in crucial moments of the match.

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In quarterfinals, he'll be playing talented countryman, Miomir Kecmanovic. He has to be much fresher of the two in this quarterfinals, after playing only 2 matches so far and having 2 days of rest in between. He also didn't spend much time on the court, beating both Jaume Munar and Ugo Humbert in straight sets. He looks more and more comfortable on the grass courts, after getting a hang of it in Stuttgart and Halle. Even though he was a No.1 junior player in the world, he never really thrived on the grass and didn't get any noticeable results in Wimbledon or Roehampton. But by becoming bigger and stronger he also started to play better in these conditions, because he isn't overpowered by his opponents that easy anymore.

Matchup

These two have never met before in an official match, but I'm quite sure they are familiar with each other's games. Serbian Davis Cup team is pretty tight and if they were part of the same team at some point, they probably had a practice hit against each other. In terms of matching up stylistically, it is no secret what type of opponents Troicki prefers. His main weapon is his return. He is able to get a high percentage of serves back in play and big servers that are relying on that shot heavily are a great matchup for him. But playing against the guys that are most comfortable behind the baseline, that advantage goes out of the window and he can be slightly overvalued in those spots, based on his grass court success but not understanding the correct cause for it.

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Betting odds & prediction

Odds opened pretty much where I expected them to open, with Troicki being slightly favored and total sitting at 23 games. I wouldn't be surprised to see money coming on Troicki and pushing this line towards -125, after a big win over Paire and a solid grass court season overall. But I don't think Kecmanovic is a good matchup for him. The youngster is too solid from the back fo the court and should dominate the longer exchanges. Troicki should really serve on a very high level and shorten the points by coming to the net whenever he can, but not setting up that approach well enough could be a double-edged sword.

Guy's Pick: Miomir Kecmanovic +102

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