The Mutua Madrid Open features the top men’s and women’s tennis players in the world, and it serves as a major warmup on the outdoor clay surface against elite competition, with Roland Garros just three weeks away. Take a look at our tennis betting insights on some of the more interesting matchups from the second round of the tournament.
Top Tennis Betting Picks of the Week – May 8th
One big second-round matchup at the Madrid Open will feature Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils, at 6:00am Eastern time. Nadal has picked up titles at the Monte-Carlo Masters and the Barcelona Open, posting a 14-1 record on the year — including a 20-set winning streak. He has been nailing his first serves, and his return has been overpowering as well. Despite the fact that he is 32, he is still the dominant clay court player right now. He has won 17 consecutive matches on clay — and he has only lost in the second round of a Masters 1000 tournament two times in the last three years. Monfils comes into this match having beaten Nikoloz Basilashvili in straight sets, needing just 26 games. Monfils won 66 percent of his points on first serve and half of them on second serve, posting nine aces. Clay is not his best surface, as he has split his last six matches. He does have 31 career victories against players ranked in the top ten, but only four of those have come in the last two years. Nadal has won 13 of the 15 meetings between the two, most recently at the 2017 Australian Open, which took Nadal four sets to win. Monfils has not beaten Nadal since 2012, when he prevailed at Doha. Tennis Betting Prediction: Nadal wins in straight sets Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic comprise another intriguing second-round matchup in Madrid. Dimitrov has only won six of his last 12 matches, and he has only made one final since he won the ATP Finals back in November. Clay has also been his toughest surface historically, although recently his numbers have improved as he has won seven of his last 10. In his last match, he took a straight-set beating from Pablo Carreno Busta, in which Carreno Busta received nine break chances. Raonic needed only 17 games to eliminate Nicolas Kicker in straight sets in his last match. Raonic won 86 percent of his first serve points in that game, and 76 percent of his overall service points and gave away no breaks. He is a power tennis player and gets a lot of easy points with that big serve. On clay, Raonic has won six of his last eight matches. Raonic and Dimitrov have met five times — with dimitrov winning four of them. Dimitrow won in straight sets in Brisbane last year; Raonic last beat Dimitrov in 2011 in Stockholm. Raonic has a hard time with consistency, and Dimitrov comes in with plenty of rest. Tennis Betting Prediction: Dimitrov wins in four sets On the women’s side, Sloane Stephens meets Karolina Pliskova in the third round tomorrow morning. Stephens took down Samantha Stosur in straight sets in the second round, winning almost 80 percent of her first serve points. She picked up four service breaks while losing just 10 of her own service points. She has lost just nine total games in her last two matches, all on clay, which is the surface on which she has the least experience. The key for her was getting some bombs on her serve. She has won six of her last nine matches on clay. She faces Pliskova, who beat Victoria Azarenka in three sets, needing 27 games. She only won 61 percent of her service points and committed eight double faults. Her power game is considerable, but she needs more consistency if she is going to get by Stephens. She has won nine of her last 11 clay court matches — but is 0-2 lifetime against Stephens, with the most recent meeting coming in Beijing in 2016, as Stephens rolled in straight sets. Tennis Betting Prediction: Stephens in straight setsJoao Sousa returns to the Top 50 after winning on home soil at the @EstorilOpen. View Latest ATP Rankings: https://t.co/WiAu2YpR5b pic.twitter.com/XcdgI3U7A2
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