TennisSection previews the 2022 Indian Wells as Ilya Ivashka takes on Jan-Lennard Struff in the first round on Thursday, March 10th, 2022.
A meeting between two big servers tends to be a close affair, especially in these Indian Wells conditions. But matches between Ilya Ivashka and Jan-Lennard Struff have ended pretty routinely in their series. Will this first-round match at Indian Wells follow suit?
Ilya Ivashka has managed to get his season up and running, although he possesses a negative win-loss record heading to the Indian Wells. The big-hitting Belarusian put together a fine second half of the campaign in 2021, which yielded a maiden ATP title at Winston-Salem. Ivashka also broke the world’s Top 50 and has since been a mainstay. The 28-year-old did not have a great start to the season in 2022, with an unfortunate leg injury sidelining him for the entire January. Ivashka was forced to miss the Australian Open and only returned to action during the European indoor hard-court swing. His best result of the season so far came in Rotterdam where he made the last eight.
Jan-Lennard Struff’s campaign has been a disaster to say the least. The German World No. 58 is winless in five matches. Struff started his season by representing his country at the ATP Cup where he recorded his only match win so far of the current season when he beat John Isner. Defeat to Thiago Monteiro in a Davis Cup singles rubber this past weekend has further wreaked Struff’s confidence coming into Indian Wells.
Jan-Lennard Struff leads Ilya Ivashka 2-1 in their head-to-head. But it is pertinent to note that Ivashka won the pair’s most recent meeting on the hard courts of Winston-Salem where Struff won just three games in the match. This has been a bizarre rivalry coming into Indian Wells, with all their matches ending in straight sets. But I reckon their clash at Indian Wells will go the distance. Ivashka has not been up to speed following his recovery and that could open up the door for Struff to extend this match into a third set at Indian Wells.
Free Tennis Pick and Prediction: Ilya Ivashka in 3 sets.
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