Geneva Open Round of 16: Does Kokkinakis have what it takes? Can O’Connell and Shapovalov pull through?
By Myre Aberdan
We are again at the stage in the tournament where it is anybody’s ball game… the last 16 of a 250 tournament, which initially had 32 players in the main draw.
Reilly Opelka is coming into this tournament as one of the form players of men’s tennis, post-pandemic. Earlier this year, Opelka rose to a career high of number 17 in the world, taking the mantle as the top ranked American men’s player in the game.
His opponent today is the battle hardened, young journeyman from Australia, Chris O’Connell. O’Connell, year after year, seems to just reach new heights. Having dominated the second tier Challenger Tour, it is now time for the talented Aussie to take his game a step further on the professional circuit. O’Connell’s season so far has been very impressive, defeating then world number 8 Diego Schwartzman in straight sets at the 2022 Australian Open, which was held in January. O’Connell is yet to make an ATP final, so he will do well to continue this roll of momentum that he has produced this week.
In another men’s matchup today, Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis looks to make an impression on the ATP tour again, with his match against Federico Delbonis. Kokkinakis has had a stellar week so far in Geneva, overcoming being broken in the very first game in his last match, to then stealing the match in straight sets against Fabio Fognini. Despite his blistering start to the season, which saw him play 3 tournaments back to back (winning a title and making a semi final in another ), Kokkinakis has had poor showings over the past 3 months. Losing in round 1 of the San Diego Open (250), followed by a 1 month layoff, fingers crossed Kokkinakis will be looking to play a fuller schedule this season. His impressive result at the Miami Masters this year was not backed up in the recent clay season, where he failed to play Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome (losing in qualifying).
In the fourth match for the day, young Canadian star Denis Shapovalov takes on Ily Ivashka. In an complete mismatch, the top 15 Shapovalov will be contending against the journeyman Ivashka, who is no match rankings wise, but more than likely can easily prevail against Shapovalov. Ivashka has had poor results on the ATP, but has had amazing results at grand slam level, featuring in the third and fourth round of majors on numerous occasions.