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Horse Racing Thursday Tennis Best Bet: ATP Rome, Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Borna Coric
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Borna Coric Best Bet: Thursday, May 18th
Absolutely lovely stuff from Stan Wawrinka who – for some reason – was pegged by the market as likely to be in a close match against Andy Murray. It was not close, nor was it ever that likely to be.
Onto Thursday, where we’ll head back to the Masters 1000 event in Rome, where we’ll break down the quarterfinals match between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Borna Coric.
In this article:
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Borna Coric Preview
May 18th, 19:30 (UK Time)
It’s yet another edition of the Tsitsipas vs Coric on-court rivalry.
Thursday marks the fourth time these two will have met since August of last season, when Coric beat Tsitsipas to lift the trophy at the Cincinnati Masters event, shortly before the U.S. Open.
It’s the first time of the four meetings, however, that the two will meet on clay (that hasn’t happened since this event five years ago).
On the slower surface, Tsitsipas’ more vulnerable backhand wing shouldn’t be as rushed, but it’s worth noting that it has looked pretty poor – almost to the point of regression – in the last few weeks, and could be in big trouble in cross-court exchanges seeing as it’s actually Coric’s stronger wing.
The opposite holds true when it comes to the forehand side of things, with the Croatian being shaky from that point of view and Tsitsipas possessing one of the more powerful clay-court forehands on tour.
All this is to say, I think that each man should have a pretty clear plan of attack.
Use your strong first serves to target the other’s weaker side and ensure you are in control of the point from the start.
While Tsitsipas has the more eye-popping first serve, Coric has been sneaky good behind his first deliveries this week, because he places them so well, has a bit of power, doesn’t get into predictable patterns and throws in some kick that sees the ball shoot up out of his opposition’s optimal hitting zone.
With Tsitsipas having struggled on return in some eminently winnable matchups of late and Coric probably possessing the most dynamic (if not biggest) first serve he’s played so far in the Italian capital, I think we see this one follow the pattern of the previous matchups and be a much closer contest than the current odds would imply.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Borna Coric Best Bet
The safest bet here is probably the over, but with that number all the way up to 22.5 games, it feels like we’re taking an over that we’d see on hard courts on slower courts that are more likely to produce sets without as many games.
The value to me lies in backing Coric. He’s shown he has the tennis IQ to compete with Tsitsipas, his serve has been strong in an event where Tsitsipas has shown the ability to struggle on return and he does have a big advantage from the baseline on the backhand wing.
There are enough things that point in his direction for me to say that 3.81 odds to win are simply too high.
- Selection: Coric to win
- Best Odds: 3.81 (Pinnacle)
- Stakes: 2/10
- Bonus: 1st set over 9.5 games at 1.83 with Bet365, using 2/10 stakes
Odds as at 1:00 am UK Time on May 18th, 2023. Odds may now differ.
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