Tennis Prediction Kei Nishikori vs Michael Zheng: Montreal

🇨🇦 Montreal (Q)

• There is one figure that scares everyone in this match, and it's Kei Nishikori's 721st world ranking. A ranking measures 12 months of tournaments played. For a player who has spent his career repairing his body, it does not measure his tennis level.

• The previous Wednesday, in Washington, he overturned Juncheng Shang after losing the first set. Two days later he surrendered against Rafael Jodar, who is devouring the circuit. That's where he stands: not enough for a top 30, largely enough for a last qualifying round.

• On the other side, Michael Zheng arrives with something more worrying than a defeat. The day before yesterday in Mexico, he led 6 games to 0 in the first set against Arthur Gea, and he ended up losing the next two 4-6, 0-6. Winning a set in 10 minutes and losing another to love in the same match, it's a signal.

• Both have taken the plane this week, one from Mexico, the other from the American capital, to come and play qualifications in Montreal. No one arrives fresh, which makes raw tennis less decisive than usual.

• I'm not going to tell stories about age: 36 years old, 6 wins for 6 losses this season, and the bulk of these matches played in Challenger. The market is not doing anything wrong in making the American the favourite.

• But to make it a 2 to 1 match, there is a step. Nishikori's comeback remains one of the very best on the circuit and it is exactly the quality that does not go away with the years.

• I see him putting up a real match, getting a set at least, and asking his opponent questions that a young player who just collapsed in Mexico may not necessarily want to be asked.