Carlos Alcaraz vs Hubert Hurkacz Prediction & Betting Tips - Cincinnati, USA

Prediction published on 19/08/2023, 04:42  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 19/08/2023 at 06:33 in Tennis Predictions

Top seeded Carlos Alcaraz takes on unseeded Hubert Hurkacz for a place in the Western & Southern Open final. The winner of this match will face either second seeded Novak Djokovic or 16th seed Alexander Zverev in the final of this outdoor hard court Masters tournament. Alcaraz will retain his position as world number one if beating Hurkacz. Losing this semi-final will see Novak Djokovic overtake him if winning the tournament. Alcaraz lost to Tommy Paul last week and wasn't happy at the way he was playing. He can't be too delighted with his Cincinnati performances. Each of his three matches have gone to a final set and in the last eight he had to come from behind to defeat qualifier Max Purcell. He did at least get revenge on Paul in the third round. The top seed has won both of his previous matches against Hurkacz. Both were on hard courts and featured four tie-breaks in the five sets played, so a bet on one here might pay dividends. The most recent meeting was last week in Toronto with Hurkacz winning the first set before Alcaraz won the next two via tie-breaks.

This Masters tournament began with Hurkacz ranked 20th in the world. His run to the last four in Cincinnati has taken him up to 17th. That's eight places below his career high achieved in 2021. He is in his first semi-final since the Stuttgart grass court event in June. The Pole has won one tournament this year and that was on hard courts. That was the Marseille tournament held indoors in February but the highest ranked player he beat was in 50th position. Only one other hard court last eight appearance had been made before this week. Hurkacz has had to win four matches to get this far. He defeated the defending champion (seeded 15th) Borna Coric in round two. That was followed up by a straight sets win over the fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. In the last eight, he beat lucky loser Alexei Popyrin in sraight sets. We go for Alcaraz to win this semi-final.