Tennis Betting Advice - April 2019

20/1 and 66/1 picks for Barcelona…

Monday 22nd April 2019

In your Ones to Watch email today:

  • ATP Barcelona…
  • Two outsiders in the bottom half…
  • Play starts 10am…

There are four tournaments on the calendar this week and they’re all on clay.

On Sunday night we backed teenager Anastasia Potapova at fancy odds for WTA Istanbul – 80/1 at best.

We’re going after two young players at big prices again today…

ATP Barcelona – Ones to Watch…

The man they call the Clay Court King – Rafael Nadal – is the 8/11 (1.73) favourite to win ATP Barcelona for what would be the fourth year running. The Spanish hero has won an unprecedented 11 titles here, including six of the last eight.

However, as we said before Monte Carlo last week, no-one is unbeatable…

Rafa went into Monte Carlo with a similarly dominant record, and failed to reward favourite backers – going out in the semi finals to 100/1 tournament outsider and eventual winner, Fabio Fognini.

Nadal is top seed and in the top half of the Barcelona draw. No.2 seed and World No.3 Alexander Zverev is the bottom half. The 22-year-old German has flattered to deceive lately, failing to win back-to-back matches in any of his last four tournaments. Zverev has yet to get as far as the quarter finals in two previous visits to Barcelona.

Targeting that bottom half of the draw, the two I like at decent prices are two young players that we’ve backed already this season – Daniil Medvedev (20/1) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (66/1).

Medvedev had a breakthrough week on clay in Monte Carlo, reaching the semi finals. That run included a quarter final win over World No.1 Novak Djokovic. The 23-year-old Russian is making his Barcelona debut this week and should arrive here confident and ready to build on last week’s impressive clay-court progress.

Auger-Aliassime is only 18 years old but has got more career match wins to his name on clay than Medvedev. Each new tournament is adding important experience to the Canadian teenager, even if last week’s performances in Monte Carlo were far from his best. As we said last week with Felix and with Potapova this week, these teenage players are ones to watch at attractive prices – at a time right now when their potential outweighs anything in the written formbook.

Nadal’s presence and record at this event means most bookies are being tighter than usual with their Each Way terms, going 1/3rd the odds for reaching the final as opposed to the standard half-odds place terms. Taking the positives; all the more reason to back players at big Outright Winner prices here…

Today’s Ones to Watch picks:

ATP Barcelona – Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell

Outright Winner:

BET: Daniil Medvedev @ 20/1 Each Way
BOOKIES: 20/1 (21.00) William Hill, 18/1 (19.00) Bet365, 16/1 (17.00) Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook

BET: Felix Auger-Aliassime @ 66/1 Each Way
BOOKIES: 66/1 (67.00) Bet365, Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook, 50/1 (51.00) William Hill

Latest odds here

  • Each Way terms: 1/3 odds 1-2 places

Today’s play in Barcelona starts from 10am.

I’ll be back later in the week, when we’ll be looking to have our next Rollover bet. After Pablo Cuevas won last Friday, we’re on three winners and counting.

Enjoy the tennis…

Best wishes,

Oliver Upstone

Tom Wilson

Ones to Watch