Tennis Betting Advice - November 2019
ATP Finals – our boys in London…
Tuesday 12th November 2019
In your Ones to Watch email today:
Zverev and Tsitsipas start well…
The ATP Finals started on Sunday with tournament favourite Novak Djokovic marching to a confident 6-2, 6-1 win over newcomer Matteo Berrettini.
However, since then all three matches in London have gone the way of the underdog – and all in straight sets...
On Sunday night, Dominic Thiem played fantastic, powerful tennis against a slightly rusty-looking Roger Federer. Thiem was the 11/4 (3.75) match outsider, but came out a deserved 7-5, 7-5 winner.
Monday saw our two Ones to Watch take to the court. After five previous defeats against Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas finally got a win over the Russian. After the high-quality 7-6, 6-4 victory, you could see what it meant to the passionate 21-year-old from Greece.
Then, in last night’s evening session, reigning ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev produced another superb display at the O2 Arena, dominating – and even, dare I say it, overpowering – Rafael Nadal. The 22-year-old German prevailed 6-2, 6-4.
Having pulled out of the Paris Masters through injury recently, doubts remain over Nadal’s fitness coming into this tournament. But take nothing away from Zverev’s performance – confident on serve, and attacking with his ground-shots at every opportunity.
There were a couple of astute observations from Mark Petchey in the Amazon Prime Video coverage last night:
The former player and coach noted how this year’s courts at the O2 Arena are playing faster than before. And also, that the move to a Dunlop ball appears to help a big server like Zverev – and hinder the Clay Court King, Rafa Nadal.
The figures that Petchey pulled up showed how Zverev has served some of his fastest serves this year with a Dunlop tennis ball, compared to balls manufactured by Head. Interesting stuff.
The return of Cici Bellis…
The women’s main tour is over for the year, but the lower-tier circuit is still going. And there’s a relatively big event this week with the WTA Oracle ‘Challenger’ tournament in Houston, USA.
There are some familiar names in the Houston draw, including this year’s Australian Open semi-finalist, Danielle Collins. The American is the top seed here.
Coco Vandeweghe is another former Grand Slam semi-finalist in action this week. In 2017, before injury, Coco made the semi finals in Australia and at the US Open, as well as the quarter finals at Wimbledon. Vandeweghe has been as high as No.9 in the world. The injury setbacks have seen her slip to No.328.
Another well-known name is Eugenie Bouchard. The Canadian, these days making more headlines off court than on it (recently hitting two million Instagram followers…), snapped a torrid 13-match losing streak by winning in the 1st round in Houston on Monday.
Back in 2014, Bouchard was a 50/1 early-bird One to Watch for us for Wimbledon, going on to reach the final and finish runner-up. Eugenie got as high as No.5 in the world. Now age 25, she’s currently No.220 in the rankings.
Also on the comeback trail, one name in particular catches the eye…
At the start of last season, the then 18-year-old Catherine Cartan Bellis – or ‘CiCi’’ Bellis is she is more commonly known – appeared on our Ones to Watch in 2018 list.
While two of the other young women on that 2018 list went on to contest this year’s French Open final (current World No.1 Ashleigh Barty beating Marketa Vondrousova), injury struck for Bellis…
Now aged 20, CiCi is getting back into things after a series of wrist and arm injuries – and a total of four surgeries. Once as high as No.35 in the world and on the way up, Bellis is currently without an official ranking after such a long layoff.
This week in Houston, the young American is making her first competitive tournament appearance since March last year.
CiCi has started well in Texas. She came through qualifying at the weekend, then won her 1st round match yesterday. The bookies have Bellis as a 4/11 (1.36) favourite to beat 33-year-old Varvara Lepchenko in the next round.
I’ll be back later this week with more from London (and maybe Houston, too).
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson