Haas – Kukushkin

My favorite part of the year and usually the most profitable, the tennis grass court season, is finally underway. German legend Tommy Haas makes his comeback after a 1 year layoff at the grass court event in Stuttgart. He will take on Mikhail Kukushkin in an attempt to start off with a victory.

Haas, 37 years old, did not play since Roland Garros last year due to a shoulder injury – a shoulder that gave him a lot of problems during his career. Tommy said he could have return to the tour a little sooner, but he still had some discomfort and wanted to come back when he felt 100% physically. I saw a very healthy attitude from Haas in his Sunday interview, he stated that he wants to enjoy being on the court again but at the same time wants to be very competitive right away. Playing on grass will help, as Tommy loves the surface and it will help him to shorten the points.

Kukushkin is a very poor player on the green, having a 3-10 win-loss record on grass for his entire career, including challengers. Mikhail is also in dirt poor form, losing his last 4 matches. It really seems that the only think Kukushkin has going for him is Tommy Haas’ situation.

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Kukushkin surprisingly leads the Head 2 Head 1-0, a win on hard courts back in 2009. But obviously there`s no relevance to this statistic and neither player holds a matchup advantage aside from the fact that Haas is a much, much better grass court player.

Normally I would be all over Kukushkin in a match and a situation like this – staying away from the tour for 1 year is way too long for anybody and after all Haas is 37 years old. However, this is not the case now. Tommy is a really special player, a fitness maniac and he was in the Top 20 last year at 36 years old. Giving his training regime and the fact that he`s used to this kind of injuries and layoffs, also seeing his healthy attitude, I expect him to be more competitive in his first match than other players would be in his situation. The surface and his huge experience will help him a lot.

Tommy is an excellent grass court player and a guy that always performs well at home. Stuttgart is the perfect venue for his comeback and I expect him to be steady on serve, while Kukushkin will likely sabotage himself with errors as he`s doing for a couple of months now. Mikhail is just too poor at now and he`s a disaster on this surface, so my tip is Haas to win.

Odds are dropping on the German. Really good value as far as I`m concerned – if this meeting repeats itself at Wimbledon for example, Haas would likely have no more than odds of 1.30 to win. Prediction: Tommy Haas – Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3 7-6.

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Pick: Haas
Odds: 1.74 @ Betsafe
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 5.92
Event date: 9 June