Daily Tennis Tips – Monday November 4

Marin Cilic and Alexandre Muller meet for the first time in the first round of the Serbia Open after a lean few weeks for both players.

World No.68 Muller was bounced in qualifying for the Vienna Open (by Jakub Mensik) and the Paris Masters (Roberto Carballes Baena).

Reaching the third round of the Shanghai Masters was his best recent result, beating Luca Nardi and Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Former world No.3 Cilic returned from a long injury layoff in spectacular fashion in September, taking out the Hangzhou Open with wins over the likes of Brandon Nakashim and Zhizhen Zhang.

But the 36-year-old has been unable to maintain that momentum, losing four straight matches since.

Each defeat has been competitive, however, including last week’s 7-6 6-4 result against in-form Arthur Fils at the Paris Masters.

Muller plays his best tennis on clay, but Cilic was a French Open semi-finalist as recently as 2022 and shape as the more appealing option on the red dirt in Belgrade.

Elena Rybakina and Qinwen Zheng are both striving to bounce back from first-up losses at the WTA Finals.

Fifth seed Rybakina went down 7-6 6-4 to Jamsine Paolini, while Zheng lost 6-3 6-4 to Aryna Sabalenka – continuing a tough run against the world No.1 that includes defeats in the Australian Open final, the US Open quarters and the Wuhan Open final.

Rybakina is 2-0 against Zheng, winning in straight sets at Wimbledon in 2022 and at the 2023 China Open.

But all-too-familiar injury problems have sidelined her since pulling out of her second-round assignment at the US Open.

In fact, the loss to Paolini was just her third match since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals.

Olympic champion Zheng has won 16 of her last 20 matches, following up her charge to the semis of the China Open and the final in Wuhan by winning the Japan Open in convincing style.

Rybakina still has the higher ceiling, but an error-heavy outing against Paolini suggests there’s (understandably) still a fair bit of rust in her game.

Nevertheless, she is a big-match player and this seems destined to require a deciding set.

Australian Open and US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka is looking to couple her newly-won world No.1 status with a maiden WTA Finals triumph.

She takes on French Open and Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini in her second group match.

The head-to-head is locked two-all, with Paolini’s most recent win coming at Indian Wells in 2022 and Sabalenka winning the only encounter since in Beijing last year.

Sabalenka is on a sizzling 21-1 run, winning the Cincinnati Masters, US Open and China Open.

Her only loss during that time was in the China Open quarters to Karolina Muchova, while she was typically ruthless in beating Qinwen Zheng 6-3 6-4.

World No.4 Paolini’s breakout season has tapered off somewhat back on hard courts, exiting the US Open in the Round of 16, before losing to Magda Linette in the China Open’s Round of 32 and Qinwen Zheng in the Wuhan Open quarters.

But the Italian made a solid statement with a 7-6 6-4 victory over (an albeit underdone) Elena Rybakina on Sunday.

Sabalenka, a $1.15 favourite, looks near-unbeatable at present and should take a stranglehold on the group with a win here – but Paolini’s skillset presents some unique challenges and this is likely to be closer than the market suggest.

Aussie journeyman Chris O’Connell takes on homegrown favourite Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round of the Serbia Open.

Kecmanovic won their only previous clash, a straight-sets result at the 2023 Adelaide International.

World No.71 O’Connell has produced some decent results of late, following up his third-round appearance at the US Open (losing to Jannik Sinner) by winning a Challenger event in Guangzhou and reaching the last 16 of the Japan Open as a qualifier.

The 30-year-old lost a third-set tiebreak to Karen Khachanov in the first round of the Paris Masters last week.

Kecmanovic, ranked 55th, lost a tight two-setter to Alex de Minaur in Paris after winning two qualifiers and beating Sebastian Baez in the first round.

Most comfortable on clay, the Belgrade-born 25-year-old took a set off Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of the last Serbia Open in 2022.

O’Connell is no easybeat but the home crowd should spur Kemanovic on to victory here.