Christopher O’Connell v Jan-Lennard Struff – Australian Open 2021 Betting Preview and Prediction
Betting-previews.com bring you a free betting preview for a 2021 Australian Open match between Christopher O’Connell and Jan-Lennard Struff, who will clash on Tuesday, February 9, in the second round of the event.
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Christopher O’Connell vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
When: Tuesday, February 9 – 11:00 AEDT
Where: Melbourne Park
Weather: Sunny, 20°C
Christopher O’Connell and Jan-Lennard Struff will clash on the second day of the 2020 Australian Open, which will mark their first head-to-head meeting in history. Regardless, Struff enter this match as a heavy favourite to defeat the O’Connell, who will look to cause some damage and perhaps even edge out a win on the home soil.
Struff has looked very solid in his campaign for his national team at the ATP Cup, where he has beaten Milos Raonic and also had his fair share of success in the doubles where he edged past Novak Djoković, before losing to the eventual champions Russia. Struff has also looked good in the warm-up events, however, some of his games could have been cleaner.
Despite his occasional flashes of greatness, Struff is still a player we find hard to trust, largely due to his inconsistencies against weaker players. Although Struff can cause an upset here and there, Struff more times than not underperforms when faced with an underdog which concerns us for this match. Most of his struggles, however, are a byproduct of his poor ball control, which should be much more obvious on Australia’s fast courts.
On the other side, we have O’Connell, who is ranked 121st in the world, but don’t let that number fool you. While he is by no means a world-beater, O’Connell has been showing improvement over the past few seasons and he usually does well on home soil.
Unlike Struff, who struggles to deliver when he is the favourite, O’Connell has managed to win plenty of games when the odds are stacked against him, making him the type of a player that is more than capable of causing an upset. O’Connell has also looked fairly solid in the warm-up events leading to the Australian Open. He has beaten Dominik Koepfer, but ended up losing to Alexander Bublik, albeit with a very respectable score (6-7, 7-6, 4-6).
O’Connell has also well at the Australian Open before, and while he has crashed out of the last year’s event in the first round, he had to face Alexander Rublev who won with a narrow margin (3-6, 6-0, 4-6, 6-7).
One more thing working in favour of O’Connell is that this match will have Australian fans in attendance for the first time since the lock-down, which should serve as a good morale booster. Struff is still the most likely winner, especially if he can enter this match with the same fire he has shown at the ATP Cup, but due to his weaknesses, we like O’Connell with a 5.5 game handicap better.
Prediction: Christopher O’Connell +5.50 Games
