Hyeon Chung vs Milos Raonic Predictions, Picks ATP Vienna Odds 10/22/2019

Hyeon Chung vs Milos Raonic

9.30 am EST, 22nd October 2019

Vienna, Austria

Hard courts (Indoor)

In this match, we will see two players that will try to salvage their seasons after missing huge chunks of it because of the injuries. Hyeon Chung had a very slow start into the season, winning only 1 out of his first 5 matches. It was obvious that something is not quite right and it turned out that he was bothered by a back injury, that eventually forced him to skip a big part of the season. He was out for more than 5 months. During that period he lost most of his points, so when he returned, he decided to find some form through participation at the challenger circuit. He won the title in Chengdu right away. Then he had a decent run at US Open, where he lost to Rafa Nadal in the third round, after fighting his way through the qualifying rounds. But after US Open, he's been mediocre at best. I watched a couple of matches and even in his wins, he wasn't playing his best tennis. Losing to Cedric Marcel Stebe last week in 1st qualifying round of Stockholm is not a great sign. With no previous experience at this event and playing mediocre tennis, his chances for a deep run here are not very high.

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On the other side, we have Milos Raonic who also missed a big part of the season. After a great result in Indian Wells, he skipped the entire clay-court season (3 months) because of an injury. He returned at the beginning of the grass-court season, but then suddenly retired just before the semi-final match vs Auger Aliassime in Stuttgart. Something similar happened a couple of months later in Montreal, against the same opponent. This time, just before the start of the third set. Stating back injury as a reason. He played only in a Laver cup exhibition after that, losing matches to Nadal and Zverev. It is very interesting that even though he's been on the tour for a long time now, he played in Vienna only once so far. It happened last year when he got eliminated in the first round vs home crowd favorite - Jurgen Melzer.

Matchup

Indoor tournaments tend to provide some faster playing conditions. It makes players with big games very dangerous and difficult to play against. Raonic's serve will be a huge weapon in this match, but he is not as one-dimensional as some might think. Besides being able to get a bunch of free points off of his serve, he is pretty solid from the baseline. He will run around and try to hit his forehand, which is the dominant wing. And once he's controlling the points, he knows how to move to the net and hit some volleys.

Chung's forte is his defense. He gets compared with Djokovic because of it, because he plays so close to the baseline, has great hands and is able to control pretty much anything that opponent fires at him. But, he has some weaknesses in his game that might decide this match. Hi serve is pretty inconsistent. He won't score many aces with his first, while the second is too weak and can be attacked by heavy hitters like Raonic.

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Betting odds & prediction

In this type of playing conditions, once you give your serve away, it's very difficult to break back. Especially when playing against a server like Raonic. This match will be played on Milos' terms. Many short points with first-strike tennis prevailing over the baseline exchanges. It's not something that Chung will enjoy. Raonic opened at -140 and got bet down to -160, despite being absent for quite a bit lately. I agree with the move. This is a plus matchup for him, where he should get a comprehensive win.

Pick: under 23.5 games (-116)

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