The Mifel Tennis Open (also known as Los Cabos Open) is one of three ATP Tour 250 events taking place this week, along with the Rio Open and Qatar Open. It arguably has the most stacked field and easily the best semi-final matchups. Let’s take a look back at this week’s action and preview this weekend’s matches.
Mifel Tennis Open Recap
Three of the top four seeds, all ranked within the top-15 in the world, are into the semi-finals of the Mifel Tennis Open after an exciting week of action. Defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, the second-ranked player in the draw, beat Aleksander Vukic and Aleksander Kovacevic in straight sets in his first two matches to set up a semi-final match with fourth seed Casper Ruud. Ruud has also been playing great tennis, beating Nuno Borges and Max Purcell in sraight sets after earning a first-round bye.
Alexander Zverev, the top seed in the draw, also won his matches in straight sets, beating Yoshihito Nishioka and Thanasi Kokkinakis. He’ll play another Aussie, Jordan Thompson, in the semifinals. Thompson is the only semifinalist who has had to play three matches, beating wildcard Ernesto Escobedo, Emilio Nava, and Alex Michelsen. He didn’t win a game in the first set against Michelsen before responding to win 0-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5.
The other seeded players in the tournament were Alex de Minaur (second round), Roman Safiullin (first round), Miomir Kecmanovic (first round), and Purcell (second round).
Semi-Final Betting Previews
Jordan Thompson (+347) vs. Alexander Zverev (-476)
This is the second career meeting between Thompson and Zverev and they’ve split their first two meetings. Thompson, who has been on court almost 3 hours and 30 minutes more than Zverev in Los Cabos, is 11-5 this season. Zverev is 11-2. Thompson upset Zverev in their last meeting 6-3, 6-4 at the Tokyo Open in October 2023, whereas Zverev beat Thompson at the Citi Open way back in 2017.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas (-108) vs. Casper Ruud (-114)
Tsitsipas and Ruud have met three times in their careers, with Tsitsipas holding a 2-1 advantage. Tsitsipas, 6-2 this season, won their last meeting in August 2021 at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. Ruud beat Tsitsipas earlier that season at the Mutua Madrid Open. Ruud is 8-1 this season with his only loss coming at the Australian Open. Tsitsipas is a much better hard court player, however, going 25-11 since the start of last season. Ruud is 19-12 on the surface since the beginning of 2023.
Mifel Tennis Open Final Prediction
While Zverev is the massive favorite against Thompson, there’s plenty of reason to expect an upset for the Aussie. He beat Zverev no more than five months ago in straight sets and is coming off of a confidence-building victory in which he came back after losing the first set 0-6. Betting Thompson at +347 especially is great value.
As strong of a start to his season that Ruud has had, he’ll be in tough against Tsitsipas, who is a better hard court player and the defending champion in Los Cabos.
Tennis Pick: Tsitsipas def. Thompson
