Tennis Betting Advice - February 2025
One to Watch in Delray Beach at 16/1...
Monday 10th February 2025
The tours continue with four tournaments this week. Including the first 1000 ‘Masters’ event of the year, in Doha. And the first clay-court tournament of the season, in Buenos Aires…
Last week’s target event for us was the ATP Dallas Open. Our 25/1 pick Reilly Opelka bowed out in the quarter finals. The trophy went to 28/1 shot Denis Shapovalov, who came through the same side of the draw as Opelka.
That ATP 500 title was the biggest of 25-year-old Shapovalov’s career to date. At the end of last season, I flagged up the talented Canadian left-hander as one to watch this year. If he can stay fit, Denis could do even greater things as 2025 progresses. It seems he’s reaching the ‘mental maturity’ level that we’ve been talking about recently.
Elsewhere in the prices last week, 20-year-old Ashlyn Krueger reached her first WTA 500-grade final, having gone off in Abu Dhabi at odds of 33/1. The American is now up to a new career-high of no.40 in the world. As I write, Krueger is in action in the 1st round of this week’s WTA 1000 event in Doha, Qatar. That’s after playing the Abu Dhabi final in UAE on Saturday. The tour schedule is pretty relentless…
Last week also saw Belinda Bencic win her first title since becoming a mother. Congratulations to one of my favourite players. Let’s keep an eye on Belinda moving forwards. She’s still only 27 years of age. There should be more to come…
In some bad news, it was sad to see Lucas Pouille say that he might have played the last match of his career. The Frenchman - a 25/1 winner for this column some years ago now - was injured on Sunday during an ATP Challenger final in Lille. Injuries have derailed Lucas many times now, and he’s been open about his resulting struggles with drink and depression. We wish him well. Pouille is only 30 years old - and as the sporting-world saying goes, you’re a long time retired.
Moving on to this week’s Ones to Watch picks now. Where once again, we’re going after appealing outsiders at attractive Each Way prices…
ATP 250 - Delray Beach (hard court):
Reilly Opelka was 25/1 in Dallas last week. This time, the 6’11” American is 14/1 to win the title at Delray Beach. As with Dallas, Reilly has won on these hard courts before. His countryman Taylor Fritz is the two-time defending champion, and is priced as the 2/1 favourite to make it a home hat-trick. Fritz and Opelka could meet in the semi finals here. Taylor leads the career head-to-head v Reilly by an overwhelming record of 7-1.
Recent Australian Open eye-catcher Learner Tien is also in that side of the draw. The American teenager is only 14/1 though, and that’s a pretty short price for a player to win their first ATP title. However, this 19-year-old certainly has talent.
The bottom half of the Delray Beach drawsheet looks a lot more open/ winnable. And one man who is edging his way back into form is Cameron Norrie. He was only two points away from beating Opelka in straight sets last week. That was a close one…
Norrie started his career on the back of great hard-court success as a College champ in the States. Here’s what I said about him back in February 2022:
As a pro, Cam has won this Delray Beach title before (2022). The current world no.63 but a former Top 10-er, the 29-year-old has suffered a slump in the last couple of seasons. He’s been working hard to turn things around though. With a final and a quarter final from his last four ATP Tour appearances…
Odds of 16/1 and 14/1 are not massive, but are more enticing than some of the names in the field here, considering the draw.
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Ones to Watch picks:
See above for full details
Outright Winner – Each Way (1/2 odds 1-2 places):
ATP Delray Beach - Delray Beach Open:
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P.S
There are also tournaments taking place in Doha, Marseille, and Buenos Aires this week (calendar here). I’ll be in touch by email with any advice on those, over the next couple of days/ evenings…
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Oliver Upstone