Mitchell Krueger vs Max Purcell Prediction & Betting Tips - Dallas Open

Prediction published on 04/02/2024, 06:57  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 05/02/2024 at 12:10 in Tennis Predictions

Max Purcell is the sixth seed in the Dallas Open and faces unseeded Mitchell Krueger in round one. For the winner there's a second round match against either a qualifier or unseeded Marcos Giron. Purcell begins this outdoor hard court tournament at 43rd in the live rankings. A good run in Dallas could see him beat his career high ranking of 40th that was achieved four months ago. He's not made the best of starts to this year and is yet to get past the second round of a tournament. He's not had easy draws though with losses to Holger Rune in Brisbane (after winning the first set) and Casper Ruud in the Australian Open second round. Last year saw him win six Challenger Tour events and of those half were on a hard court surface, two of them in India.

Mitchell Krueger is 244th in the live rankings but was 135th in 2022. He actually leads Purcell 2-0 in previous meetings but they were both on the Challenger Tour and Purcell has improved a great deal since then. He has already won one title this year, again that being on the Challenger Tour. Krueger won the first of the Indian Wells events but didn't beat anyone ranked in the top 240. He then played in the second Indian Wells Challenger Tour event but lost in the last 16 to Bor Artnak who was ranked 527th at the time. He'll have home support here as he's a Dallas resident but we tip Purcell to make it an unhappy homecoming for him.