Tennis Betting Advice - May 2020
Melzer for the return at 7/2…
Monday 25th May 2020
In your Ones to Watch email today:
Hunter Reese couldn’t take his chance in the second set for Ruan Roelofse yesterday, and fell away to a 6-2, 6-3 defeat.
Not a great weekend for us then, but we move onto a new week with stacks more tennis to look at as the new-format events continue to pop up.
A couple of reasonably big competitions are lined up for June, with a women’s event on the Charleston courts in the USA in lieu of the usual annual WTA tournament there. And Novak Djokovic has announced that he will compete in a series of mini-events in the Balkans. There’s more to come, too.
Melzer for the return at 7/2…
Today’s Exo-Tennis matches in Atlanta look all very strongly skewed for the favourites, with some really short odds, and none of the outsiders making any realistic appeal this time.
The women’s UTR Pro Match Series in Florida had to be abandoned on Sunday due to bad weather. Rain stopped play on Saturday, and they never managed to get back on court to sort out the playoff matches.
A new national event starts in Austria today with the Generali Austria Pro Series…
World No.3 Dominic Thiem is the star player here, and by some distance. The competition involves a round-robin group stage over the next couple of weeks, with 16 men competing in one event and eight women in another.
Behind Thiem, the most recognisable men’s name here is Jurgen Melzer. Now a proper tennis veteran at age 39, Melzer has never officially retired and hanging on to his ranking rights means he stills appears in the occasional top-level tournament to play doubles.
Melzer has always been an interesting character. He’s right-handed, but plays tennis left-handed. And always had a fiery edge to him on court, fuelled by a fierce competitive spirit.
He could see that competitive spirit come to the fore today. Melzer kicks off at 1pm UK time against 23-year-old fellow Austrian, Lenny Hempel.
Hempel is yet to make any significant dent on the pro tours, and I’ve seen him squander promising positions in matches before, which suggests to me a lack of the killer instinct needed to really make it at the top end of the game. That’s not to write him off, but Melzer should have the smarts to pick off his younger opponent here.
I wouldn’t expect it to be all plain sailing though, and not for the first time at these new small events the Set Betting market appeals to us here, in comparison to the Match Winner prices.
Melzer is 1/2 (1.50) for the win. I prefer 7/2 (4.50) for the 2-1 result. If Hempel gets ahead, I’d fancy Jurgen to reel him in. And in a vice versa situation, I could see Melzer faltering before getting over the line. In short – this is an age & experience issue, and class to tell in the end…
Austrian Pro Series:
1pm:
I’ll continue the daily look at the matches & prices tomorrow, with more matches on the schedule worthy of research in both Austria and the USA.
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson