Holger Rune vs Yoshihito Nishioka Prediction: The Asian has minimal chances of winning

In the Australian Open, Denmark's world No. 8 Holger Rune will face Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka, currently No. 61 in the world rankings. The guys have crossed paths on tour before, with the Japanese winning in three sets. But despite this result, bookmakers are on the side of the Dane in the pairing, believing that the Asian has minimal chances of winning.

In 2024, Holger has already played six matches, five in Brisbane and one exhibition match against Khachanov. In Brisbane, the Dane achieved four wins over Purcell, Duckworth, Shevchenko, and Safiullin and reached the final, where he lost in two sets to Grigor Dimitrov, currently the 13th-ranked player in the world. The match against Dimitrov lasted two hours and 19 minutes, with the score 7:6 and 6:4 in favor of Holger. During the game, Holger made nine aces with three double faults and won 76% of points on the first serve and 43% on the second. 

The Japanese haven't played a match in 2024, so it is very difficult to judge his current form. The Japanese finished last season at the Paris Masters, where he reached the round of 32 before losing to Andrey Rublev. During that game, Nishioka had two aces and one double fault and won 77% of his points on his first serve and 44% on his second serve.

Nishioka has experience beating Rune. However, we doubt that the Japanese will be able to compete with the Dane on Tuesday. First of all, such thoughts appear thanks to the good statistics of the Dane at the beginning of the 2024 season and Nishioka's lack of game practice in the new season. In this pair, we bet on a very confident victory of the Scandinavian over the Asian.