OTW Extra Email Archive - October 2025
Notes from the Tour: Borg plays tonight...
Wednesday 15th October 2025
The dream came true in Shanghai last week…
The ‘500/1 cousins’ - Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech - made it all the way to the Rolex Shanghai Masters final…
World no.204 Vacherot took the trophy. A staggering feat. The man from Monaco is the lowest-ranked player to ever win an ATP Masters 1000 title. The 26-year-old has leapt up to no.40 in this week’s new world rankings. Incredible stuff.
Before Shanghai, which he only entered as an alternate in the qualifying rounds - having not originally been in the tournament at all. Vacherot had never been anywhere near the deep end of a full-grade ATP tournament. It really was an amazing run…
Day-one Outright Winner odds of 500/1 perhaps don’t even do it justice. Valentin won nine matches in a row. The combined Match Winner odds of those nine victories come out at over 10,000/1.
Vacherot came back to win from a set down in six of those nine matches. Inspirational.
Another young man dreaming of making history this week is Leo Borg…
It can’t be easy going into the sporting spotlight when your dad happens to be Bjorn Borg - one of the most famous and successful tennis players of all time…
In years gone by, young Leo’s tennis career has been greeted with varying degrees of scepticism and criticism. For example, he’s repeatedly been given a ‘wildcard’ into home events in Sweden, such as this week’s ATP 250 tournament in Stockholm. With little in the way of progress to warrant the event organisers’ gift-giving efforts…
Source: TennisExplorer
Maybe that’s all about to change this year though…
On Monday night, Leo Borg broke new ground. Finally winning his first ever main-draw match at ATP Stockholm, having previously fallen at the first hurdle, four years running.
That was just a second ever career match win on the main tour (the other also came in Sweden, at Bastad).
Next up for the world no.622 - who to be fair has had injuries to contend with, partly explaining that low ranking (he’s been at no.334 before) - a match-up this evening in the headline match, against Denis Shapovalov…
The 26-year-old Canadian is ranked no.23, and has been Top 10 before. Denis is a former winner and finalist at this tournament.
In today’s Match Winner betting, Boylesports are as big as 10/1 for Leo to pull off what would be a crowd-pleasing upset.
At around Even Money (2.0+), Borg +5.5 Games Handicap holds some underdog appeal with William Hill, Skybet, and Unibet.
Elsewhere on the tour this week…
Over in Belgium, we have a big-serving Ones to Watch player in action at ATP Brussels…
And in Japan, we’re on a 50/1 outsider at WTA Osaka…
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Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Oliver Upstone