Mackenzie Mcdonald vs Aleksandar Kovacevic Prediction & Betting Tips - Seoul, Korea Republic, Qualifying

Prediction published on 29/09/2022, 09:30  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 29/09/2022 at 10:31 in Tennis Predictions

We are assured of an unseeded player reaching the Korean Open semi-finals. MacKenzie McDonald takes on lucky loser Aleksandr Kovacevic with the winner up against either top seeded Casper Ruud or Yoshihio Nishioka in the last four. McDonald began this tournament ranked 82nd but is up six places in the live rankings. A win here will see him climb to 72nd. That's still well below his career high of 48th achieved last month. The American is in his first quarter final since reaching the last eight in Dubai seven months ago. This week has seen him beat Pedro Martinez and lucky loser Shintaro Mochizuki, both wins coming in straight sets. 

It's not been the hardest of draws for McDonald and now he meets another lucky loser. fellow American Aleksandr Kovacevic. His opponent was ranked 222nd at the start of this week. This run to the quarter finals of the Korean Open has seen him rise to 190th and a win over McDonald will take him up to 166th. He didn't imagine that was going to happen when going a set down in the first qualifying round and then losing to Nicolas Jarry in the final qualifier. Withdrawals saw him into the main draw as a lucky loser and he's made the most of it.  It's his first time in the main draw of an ATP Tour event and he began in style with a straight sets win over the seventh seeded Miomir Kecmanovic, He followed that up with a three-set win over Tseng Chung hsin. Most of this year has seen him playing on the Challenger Tour with one final reached. This looks like being the end of the road for him in Seoul, back McDonald to get the win.