Tennis Betting Advice - March 2025
Indian Wells: Marta's showing form at 66/1...
Monday 10th March 2025
As Indian Wells enters its second week, we’re sticking to our ‘price is king’ mantra - and backing two in-form outsiders…
We’ve got two of our four original women’s picks still running at Indian Wells. In the book at 125/1+ in the Outright Winner market, Maria Sakkari takes on American no.1 Coco Gauff on the iconic Stadium 1 court this evening (around 8pm, UK time).
While 40/1 pick Emma Navarro gets a second chance here at Tennis Paradise, having saved consecutive match points against Sorana Cirstea to pull off a remarkable comeback in her opener. Navarro has another tricky assignment, against Donna Vekic late tonight (1am).
In the men’s, if we’re looking past the big names at short prices at the top of the Outright betting, then I’m only interested in massive odds - to make the risk/reward ratio worthwhile…
The Lucky Loser…
BOTIC VAN DE ZANDSCHULP pulled off the upset of the tournament so far the other night, knocking out five-times past Indian Wells champion, the great Novak Djokovic. In his own words, the former world no.1 is struggling right now. But Botic still had to beat the big name on the other side of the net…
The tall Dutchman has done it before too, with a win over reigning two-time Indian Wells champ Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open late last summer.
Indeed, Botic is already living a charmed life here in the Californian desert this month. The 29-year-old actually lost in the second round of qualifying last week, but was parachuted into the main draw as a Lucky Loser…
Van De Zandschulp then also benefited from an injured opponent in the 1st Round proper, when another big name - Nick Kyrgios - retired mid-match, with Botic leading 7-6, 3-0 at the time.
Next up for the world no.85, a clash this evening against world no.26, Francisco Cerundolo. The 26-year-old Argentinean may be higher ranked, but Cerundolo is only 36-36 lifetime on tour on outdoor hard courts. In comparison, his European opponent Van De Zandschulp has a positive hard-court career match win-loss record of 68-48.
Add in the fact that in this section of the draw, with Djokovic gone, the chance is there for a deep outsider run. With Hubert Hurkacz or Alex De Minaur waiting in the next round, and neither appealing greatly to me on price/ form at this moment (Hurkacz started the event at 50/1, and is now 33/1 at best. De Minaur was 28/1, and is now 18/1 tops).
We’ll have an underdog bet on Botic Van De Zandschulp at 100/1+, Each Way. See below for bookies and best odds.
Marta’s showing form…
Going back to last week’s you-can’t-back-them-all piece, one player I like from that list at today’s available prices in the women’s market - now that we’ve seen some tennis played - is MARTA KOSTYUK…
A 100/1 semi-finalist for us here at this very tournament last year, the young Ukrainian has reeled-off two 2-0 match wins in the early rounds so far at Indian Wells 2025.
And seeing as Marta is still available at 66/1, which is the same price the world no.24 went off at before a ball was hit last week. Let’s take the 22-year-old at big prices this week…
We haven’t got a player in the book in the bottom half of the women’s Indian Wells draw right now. Marta Kostyuk very much fits the Ones to Watch criteria here.
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Ones to Watch picks:
See above for full details
Outright Winner – Each Way (1/2 odds 1-2 places)
ATP Indian Wells - BNP Paribas Open:
WTA Indian Wells - BNP Paribas Open:
Bookies will take down Outright markets during the day’s play (from 6pm, UK time).
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Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Oliver Upstone