Stan Wawrinka vs Oscar Otte ATP Prague Challenger tennis live streaming, preview and predictions

World no. 17 Stan Wawrinka continues his search for form at Challenger level as he takes on Oscar Otte for a place in the quarterfinals in Prague.

Wawrinka vs Otte is live from Prague on Wednesday 19 August, time TBC

Stan Wawrinka hasn’t played a Challenger tournament for a decade, not since winning Lugano in 2010, but the three-time Grand Slam champion has opted to play the I.CTLK Prague Open by Moneta on clay ahead of upcoming, bigger ATP Tour events and the French Open instead of travelling to the USA.

ATP Prague Challenger: Tournament information, schedules and live streams for the Prague Open

After an uneven three-set win in the first round over Roman Safiullin, Wawrinka will look to impose his will on second-round opponent Oscar Otte, a 27-year-old German ranked world no. 217.

Read on for our preview, predictions and live streaming information.

How to watch Wawrinka vs Otte live

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Wawrinka vs Otte: Head-to-head

This will be the first meeting between Stan Wawrinka and Oscar Otte.

Wawrinka vs Otte: Preview

Arguably the most high-profile player apart from Rafael Nadal to have opted to sit out the upcoming two-tournament US swing, including the US Open where he is a former champion, Wawrinka is clearly targeting the European clay-court season as his decision to drop down to Challenger level for the first time in a decade indicates.

The world no. 17 last played in Acapulco on hard courts in February, losing in the quarterfinals to Grigor Dimitrov, and with finals reached in Antwerp and Rotterdam in 2019 and Grand Slam quarterfinals made at the French Open, US Open and Australian Open over the past 15 months, looked pre-shutdown as close to his major-title-winning old self than he has since multiple knee surgeries in 2017.

How close that is to the kind of form which might win him another major title is another question. But the time off court certainly won’t have done the 35-year-old any harm physically or mentally, and playing in Prague is a good way to recover match fitness. Up against world no. 189 Roman Safiullin in the first round, Wawrinka was stretched to three sets, but it’s notable that he won the first and third sets in dominant fashion, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1. He was actually up an early break in the second set, only to narrowly lose it after losing control of the match midway through the set when Safiullin fended off multiple break points in a lengthy game – all very understandable after such a long period off court.
Oscar Otte, who has been playing multiple matches for German exhibition leagues during the shutdown (and winning 18 of the 22, for whatever that’s worth), has yet to drop a set in Prague in wins over Malek Jaziri 6-4, 6-0 and 13th seed Arthur Rinderknech 6-2, 6-3. Couple it with his exhibition results and that’s some good form for the 27-year-old journeyman, who was 1-4 in 2020 before the shutdown, has never ranked above world no. 129 and is currently world no. 216.

Otte has a 3-12 record against top-10 players, with his best win by rankings coming over then world no. 92 Jaziri (obviously a good match-up for Otte) in the first round of the French Open when both were lucky losers. It would really strain credulity to see him beating Wawrinka, and the Swiss player

Wawrinka vs Otte: Prediction

Over 22.5 games @ 11/10 with Unibet

*Odds correct at 17.44 BST on 18/8/2020