Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Ben Shelton Prediction & Betting Tips - Cincinnati, USA

Prediction published on 15/08/2023, 11:17  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 16/08/2023 at 07:10 in Tennis Predictions

Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas begins his Western & Southern Open campaign. He faces unseeded Ben Shelton in the second round of this outdoor hard court Masters event after receiving a first round bye. Tsitsipas has won one title this year and that was last month when winning the hard court Los Cabos Open for the loss of one set. He beat Borna Coric (defending champion in this tournament) in the last four and could meet him again in the third round of this event. The Greek is ranked fourth in the world but surprisingly lost to Gael Monfils in his first match in his most recent tournament in Toronto. Highlights of his 2023 hard court season before the win in Los Cabos include reaching the Australian Open final but those are the only two events in which he's got past the last 16.

Ben Shelton got to the quarter finals of the Australian Open but has struggled to build on that. He began this Cincinnati tournament ranked 40th, five places below his career high achieved in June of this year. He's down to 44th in the live rankings as he's defending the points won here last year when reaching round three. Shelton has played three hard court events in recent weeks but failed to get past the last 32 in any of them. The first round of this tournament saw him beat Christopher Eubanks in three sets after losing the first one. We go for Tsitsipas to win this in straight sets.