Two great players in Alexei Popyrin and Grigor Dimitrov are facing off on Tuesday in the third round of the Shanghai Masters. Or at least we hope it will be on Tuesday, there has been a lot of delays due to rain the past days. Let’s look closer at our Popyrin vs Dimitrov predictions ahead of what should be a great match.
Popyrin, currently 24 in the rankings, has a really high level when he plays his best tennis which he showed at the Canada Open, not at least. Now he is experiencing his best run at the Shanghai event and hope to cause yet another upset.
The 20th seeded Australian has not succeed in all events though, just coming from a first round exit at the Japan Open to Tomas Machac. Apart from the title in Canada, he also had some other decent runs in hard-court events this season. He got into the last 4 at the Qatar Open and he had a famous win over Djokovic at the US Open where he reached the fourth round.
Popyrin defeated Miomir Kecmanovic in the previous round to get into tomorrow’s clash with Grigor Dimitrov.
The 9th seeded Bulgarian had to wait long for his opening match against Zizou Bergs and it wasn’t concluded until Monday, due to the heavy rain. Eventually he needed a deciding set to come out on top with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win.
The world no 10 has been good on hard-courts this year ever since the title in Brisbane in January.
H2H
They met three times on tour, all on hard court, and Popyrin has a slight 2-1 lead, He also won the last meeting at the ATP Montreal.
Odds and Predictions
Looking at the latest betting odds we can see that Dimitrov is quite clear favorite at 1.68 / -150 and a win for Popyrin gives 2.25 / +125.
The Bulgarian is by far the most experienced player and he had a good year on this surface. However, we see value in backing Popyrin here, at least via a handicap bet.
The Australian is already leading the h2h between them, he looked good on hard-courts for the most part of the season and we know his highest level is really high. He can beat basically anyone on a good day. From a mental / physical standpoint he also has a slight edge having 2 days rest while Dimitrov will be playing two days in a row.
Dimitrov will have a big job dealing with the serve from Popyrin. In their last meeting he won 80% on first serve and 50% on second serve…
Interesting odds:
- Game Handicap – Popyrin, Alexei (1.5) – 1.96 / -110
- Exact sets: 3 – 2.26 / +125
Odds taken from our top rated sportsbooks. We recommend Betr for AU bettors.
Odds taken from our top rated sportsbooks. We recommend PariMatch for UK bettors.
Odds taken from our top rated sportsbooks. We recommend FanDuel or DraftKings for US bettors.
