2019 China Open: Khachanov Favored To Win In Beijing

• Many of the top players in this tournament have struggled entering the China Open
• Stefanos Tsitsipas has lost in his first match in four straight tournaments
• We preview the latest ATP tour stop and predict a winner in China

The 2019 China Open is upon us as a number of the bigger names on the ATP Tour will be participating. Of course, we won’t see Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer, but players like Dominic Thiem and Alex Zverev will highlight. Who’s the best bet to win this event?

Odds To Win 2019 ATP Beijing

*Odds taken 09/28/2019.

Many Top Seeds Lacking Momentum

While the field is lacking the star power of the Big Three, it’s also lacking a top seed with clear-cut momentum going into this event. As a matter of fact, many of the top seeds are lacking that type of positive energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0QpgAeo3rs

Take the No. 4 seed Karan Khachanov, for example. This is a guy who just lost his first match at the St. Petersburg Open and is 1-4 in his last five matches. No. 8 Matteo Berrettini made a great run at the U.S. Open but just lost in his second match at the St. Petersburg Open, falling to Egor Gerasimov.

I’d consider taking a shot with No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas but he’s publicly stated that he’s lacking motivation these days. It shows as he lost in his first match at the Zhuhai Open last week. That’s the fourth straight tournament where he’s failed to win a single match.

As for the top seed in Dominic Thiem, he’s coming off a very narrow win over Denis Shapovalov at the Laver Cup last week, which was followed by loss to Taylor Fritz, which is quite discouraging. It seems like there’s very few participants here who are playing well right now.

Avoid Thiem

Thiem is the top seed on the men’s side but I’ll be passing on him in terms of his odds to win it all. This is a player who is mostly a clay-court specialist and has really struggled of late (in general). While he’s 33-15 on the season, he lost in the first round at the U.S. Open and won just two matches at the Rogers Cup.

It’s worth noting that Thiem was dealing with some kind of a virus that forced him out of the Cincinnati Masters and cost him that early upset at the U.S. Open. However, he’s just never been that strong on hard courts, so I’ll pass on him here. He’s just 9-5 on hard courts this year compared to 19-6 on clay.

Who’s the Best Bet?

At this point, it seems like I’ve avoided the entire field. However, that’s not the case. I’m going to take a shot with Alex Zverev at this tournament. He’s among the higher seeds here and while he also didn’t have much momentum, he did play well at the Laver Cup last week.

Zverev got a big win over Milos Raonic, which was impressive. He did lose to John Isner but he pushed him pretty hard in the match. I think he’ll carry that confidence over into this tournament where he won’t have to face many big names.