Tennis Betting Advice - October 2023
WTA Beijing: Follow this head-to-head record at 16/1…
Wednesday 4th October 2023
Good evening. Before we get onto tomorrow morning’s action in Beijing. A note on our Chinese 300/1 Ones to Watch for the Rolex Shanghai Masters…
More big prices available…
Zhizhen Zhang put together about as impressive an opening match win as you could imagine today. Cheered on by the home supporters, the 26-year-old – who recently became the first man to win Gold in tennis for China at the Asian Games since 1994 – took less than an hour to take out Richard Gasquet…
Zhang’s 6-1, 6-2 victory (against an admittedly ailing opponent) clocked in at just 51 minutes. Including a fine display of accurate hitting, and some ruthless serving – with Zhizhen winning 22 out of 28 points on his 1st serve, while stacking up 11 aces.
Bigger challenges will lie ahead for the Chinese player if he’s to progress deep in this tournament. But if you’re not on Zhizhen Zhang yet, those appealing triple-figure, Each Way prices are still available today. With the Outright markets online until play resumes on Thursday morning, 5.30am UK time.
Along with our other Ones to Watch pick from Tuesday’s Shanghai email, 50/1 Ben Shelton. With the exciting and fast-rising 20-year-old American available at that price or bigger this evening, as he awaits his opening match this week…
Best odds as I write for our men in Shanghai:
Outright Winner – Each Way (1/2 odds 1-2 places)
I should also point that as well as that Asian Games win, Zhizhen Zhang has also made history by becoming the first Chinese player to break into the men’s world top 100 – and is also the first man from his country to reach the quarter finals of an ATP 1000 Masters event (Madrid 2023). He’s Ones to Watch for sure, and this big home ATP 1000 event in China might just prove the best time all year to back him.
Follow this head-to-head record at 16/1…
Over to the women’s event taking place in China now, with the WTA 1000 Beijing tournament a few days further in than Shanghai.
Our recent WTA 500 Tokyo pick at 7/1+, Maria Sakkari is 16/1 to keep her good form going this week. Maria made the semis for us in Japan, coming on the back of the biggest tournament win of her career, tasting long-awaited glory at the WTA 1000 in Guadalajara, Mexico last month.
The world no.6 has now won 8 of her last 9 matches on hard courts, and is priced as the bookies’ short odds-on favourite to make that 9 out of 10 when she takes on upcoming Chinese 22-year-old Xinyu Wang on Thursday morning. If Sakkari can stay steady and pass that test, then she’ll have a shot at taking out some tough, big-name opponents – with some quiet confidence up her sleeve…
If we look at Maria’s potential route to the final from here, it’s formidable. But then again, so is the 28-year-old’s record against these opponents…
For example, Sakkari’s career head-to-head record reads:
3-1 v Veronika Kudermetova
4-2 v Coco Gauff
3-2 v Iga Swiatek
3-3 v Caroline Garcia – with Sakkari 3-0 v Garcia this year
Let’s stick with Maria to keep her late-season momentum going here…
---------------------------------------------------------------
Ones to Watch picks:
WTA Beijing – China Open
Outright Winner – Each Way (1/3 odds 1-2 places):
---------------------------------------------------------------
Play starts from 5.30am. Bookies take down their Outright markets during play.
You can watch the China Open and Rolex Shanghai Masters live on Amazon Prime Video.
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Oliver Upstone