Daniel Altmaier vs Karen Khachanov Prediction: Karen will be closer to victory

In the Australian Open, Germany's Daniel Altmaier, the 57th ranked player in the world, will face Russia's Karen Khachanov, currently No. 15 in the world rankings. The guys have not crossed paths on tour before, and bookmakers are on the side of the Russian in the pairing, believing that Karen will be closer to victory.

Before the start of the Australian Open, the German played two tournaments on hard courts. First, Daniel played two matches at the Brisbane tournament, where he beat Tu but lost to Grigor Dimitrov in two games. Almayer was seen at the Auckland tournament, where he played three matches, knocking out American Giron and Canadian Auger-Aliassime, but lost to Frenchman Fils. However, it should be said that the match against Fils was not finished. Daniel dropped out after the first game of the second set and lost the first game.

Karen played one official match at the Hong Kong tournament, and one exhibition match against Rune in 2024. Both matches were lost, so nothing positive can be said about the Russian's form so far. Despite his poor results in 2024, Khachanov is the favorite in the pairing.

Rublev had a hard time beating his first-round opponent at the AO on Sunday, although Andrey had a win at the Hong Kong tournament before that, i.e., he had some good match practice. Khachanov has a difficult opponent, who already has a win over Auger-Aliassime, a rather strong tennis player in 2024. We believe that Khachanov, in the first round of the Australian Open, awaits a difficult match in which it is not at all certain that the Russian will be able to win.