Kozlov vs Krueger Rivalry Resumes In Columbus

Stefan Kozlov and Mitchell Krueger have played each other ten times on the ATP World Tour and each has won five times and lost five time. You won’t find many better rivalries than that.

The first Kozlov vs Krueger clash was at Tallahassee Challenger quarterfinals 2017 and the four years elder Krueger won 64 75. 32 year old Krueger was 23 at the time, 28 year old Kozlov 19.

Kozlov turned the tables on Krueger and beat him the next two matches in 2018 Sarasota 64 63 and 2019 Orlando 62 57 63.

The next meeting was in 2021 at an ITF in Naples and Krueger prevailed 64 30.

They played two more times in 2021 and Kozlov won both of those in Columbus and Champaign, both in straight sets.

In 2022 the two Americans met again at Miami Open qualies 1R and Krueger came out on top 64 62.

Later in 2022 in Charlottesville, Kozlov won the longest battle they ever had 75 07 76.

That win put Kozlov ahead in the head to head 5-3 however, in 2024 at Tallahassee semis Krueger won 63 36 61.

Then last summer at Newport Challenger 1R Krueger won again 61 36 61.

So the rivalry is locked at 5-5 and tomorrow’s intriguing 11th meeting will tip the scales of the rivalry. Kozlov is currently ranked 294 while Krueger is at 381.

In all their matches, only one was a semi and two were quarterfinals, so all the others were R32 or R16. They never faced off in a final. Also notable, in the ten match rivalry, neither player has been able to beat the other three times in a row.

Today Kozlov beat James Trotter 63 62 and yesterday Krueger bested Tyler Zink 76 63 to set up the R16 showdown Thursday afternoon.

Mitchell Krueger · Stefan Kozlov

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