Gael Monfils vs Novak Djokovic Prediction & Betting Tips - Cincinnati, USA

Prediction published on 17/08/2023, 06:28  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 17/08/2023 at 13:40 in Tennis Predictions

Second seed Novak Djokovic takes on resurgent Gael Monfils in the Western & Southern Open third round. The winner faces a quarter final against either the ninth seed Taylor Fritz or unseeded Dusan Lajovic. Djokovic is playing his first tournament since losing the Wimbledon final to Carlos Alcaraz. One match has been played in this outdoor hard court Masters event and it only lasted one set. He won the first set against Alejandro Davidoich-Fokina 6-4 and his opponent then retired. This is the first tournament the world number two has played in the US since 2021. If he reaches the final then he could topple Alcaraz and again become the world number one. The Serb has won three titles this year and two have been on outdoor hard courts. They wre both down under at the start of the year, winning in Adelaide and then the Australian Open. His other title win was at Roland Garros. In previous years, Djokovic has won this title twice (last time in 2020) and lost in five finals.

Gael Monfils has been in excellent form in recent weeks. He began this tournament ranked 211th but that's 102 places higher than he was at the end of July. He's up to 160the in the live rankings but faces an almighty tough task here against Djokovic. He's met his opponent in 18 ATP Tour matches and lost every single one of them. 15 of those losses have been on hard courts including one here 12 years ago.He did beat him in a lesser tour but that was 19 years ago. Monfils is 36 years old now and before playing a hard court event in Atlanta (where he lost in the first round) hadn't played a tournament since Roland Garros. He began to show improved form in Washington, reaching the last 16. His good form continued in Toronto where he got to the last 16 and beat Stefanos Tsitsipas on the way. Another seeded player was beaten this week. He came from behind to knock out the 13th seeded Cameron Norrie in round one. Another good win came in round two when beating Alex de Minaur. We go for Djokovic to win this in straight sets.