Bet Of The Day October 18

Andrew Hendrie: Oct 18, 2023

The ATP Tokyo first round match between Hubert Hurkacz and Zhizhen Zhang features as Bettingpro.com.au’s best bet for Wednesday October 18.

Bet Of The Day October 18 – read on below for our reasoning behind today’s best bet.

Key Points

Zhang has won eight of his last nine matches
Zhang covered a +2.5 games line vs Hurkacz in Shanghai last week
Hurkacz won that match in a deciding set tiebreak, with both players finishing on 18 games won
Hurkacz coming off short turnaround from Masters 1000 triumph in Shanghai on the weekend
Hurkacz dropped a set vs World No. 171 and then lost in R2 vs Evans in his next tournament after winning the Miami Masters in 2021

We’re off to ATP Tokyo for today’s best bet as Hubert Hurkacz and Zhizhen Zhang square off for the second straight tournament.

Hurkacz prevailed in a deciding set tiebreak in Shanghai last week before going on to pick up his second Masters 1000 title, edging out Andrey Rublev in another third set tiebreak, saving a match point along the way.

Hurkacz spent a lot of physical and mental energy in Shanghai and he’s got a short turnaround at the Tokyo 500 this week, so I’m keen to back Zhang with a +2.5 games head start here.

Zhang is in career-best form and almost got the better of Hurkacz last week, while he’s won eight of his last nine matches overall after picking up a Gold Medal at the Asian Games last month, becoming the first Chinese player to accomplish such a feat since 1994.

It’s so tough to back up consistency in tennis and that’s the challenge Hurkacz faces this week – he got lucky at times during his Shanghai run and these things have a way of evening out.

Also, Hurkacz isn’t really known for his consistency week to week, so it would be surprising if he had a routine victory here.

Perhaps importantly, Hurkacz struggled in his next tournament after winning his first Masters 1000 title back in Miami 2021. Hurkacz proceeded to drop a set to World No. 171 Thomas Fabbiano in Monte Carlo before suffering a crushing 4-6 1-6 loss to Dan Evans.

As mentioned, Zhang is playing the best tennis of his career, so if he maintains that level, he should be able to push Hurkacz, who is also due a letdown from one of the biggest moments of his career.

BET OF THE DAY OCTOBER 18 👇