Tennis Betting Advice - January 2020
Two reasons to be up early on Saturday…
Friday 10th January 2020
In your Ones to Watch email today:
Set your alarm clock…
We’ve got ourselves a couple of good positions going into the first ‘finals’ weekend of the season.
In China, our 16/1 or 11/1 Each Way pick Ekaterina Alexandrova is through to the WTA Shenzhen final.
The Russian has played great this week, and although there have been nerves when serving for the last two matches, the good sign is that Ekaterina played better in the semi final than in the quarter final. In her own words, Alexandrova said she “felt calmer” in the semi v Garbine Muguruza.
The 25-year-old is on a nine-match winning streak on hard courts, going back to the end of last season where she won the lower-tier WTA $125 Limoges title.
Alexandrova will play another hard-hitting hard-court player in the final, 21-year-old Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.
I like both players. Rybakina was a 16/1 pick for us in Luxembourg towards the end of last season, where she reached the semi final. Both are on the up in the rankings.
Alexandrova is looking for her maiden WTA main tour title, in this her second appearance in a final – and her first since 2018.
The bookies make our pick an 8/11 (1.73) favourite to take the trophy.
Australia in the semis…
In the ATP Cup in Australia, we’re on the host nation at 7/1 Outright.
Lleyton Hewitt’s team have done great so far – and team spirit looks supremely high. In the quarters, Australia edged out Great Britain in a deciding Doubles match, 18-16 in a ‘Champions Tiebreak’ (first to 10 points, must be winning by 2) – after the match ended level at 1-1.
Australia saved four match points in that Doubles decider, with a game-face Nick Kyrgios and adrenaline-fuelled Alex De Minaur getting over the line, in what is already a contender for one of the most dramatic moments of the season.
Hewitt made a bold choice switching the Doubles pairing to those two; Kyrgios and De Minaur had both also been on court in the Singles earlier in the day. It paid off in the end.
Saturday’s semi final will be the big test – and the atmosphere should be brilliant. Australia take on Davis Cup champions Spain….
The Spanish are the favourites. But they too only edged it in the quarter finals (v Belgium), also requiring a Champions Tiebreak in the Doubles after the Singles ended 1-1 and the Doubles match went to one set all.
And as David Goffin’s 2-0 Singles win over Rafael Nadal showed, even the No.1 player in the world is not invincible.
The early line-up has Kyrgios v Roberto Bautista-Agut and De Minaur v Nadal in the Singles. With Chris Guccione & John Peers restored to the Doubles line-up, where they will face Nadal & Pablo Carreno-Busta.
That’s how it is on paper for now, anyway…
I wouldn’t rule out a switch happening, either in the Singles – or in the Doubles if it goes to that decider.
Kyrgios has won his last two meetings v Nadal, and has looked ‘bigtime’ in the gold & green shirt all week. However, Lleyton Hewitt knows a good thing or two more about tennis than me. Maybe the captain is thinking that Nick will put his nation 1-0 up, with the pressure then on Nadal to drive Spain home by winning the Singles and then leading the line in the Doubles.
That’s all speculation. What we do know is, we’ve got an Each Way payout coming our way from Ekaterina Alexandrova in Shenzhen – and maybe more. And we’re in with more than a fighting chance of making the final of the ATP Cup with the Australian squad sure to give their all.
I’ll be back with ‘Sunday Night Club’ at the end of the weekend, ready with our first tournament previews & picks for next week’s tournaments. It’s all happening.
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson