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Boxing Tennis Picks Today for February 7th: Free Tennis Prediction for Rus vs Cornet and Kudla vs Albot
Tennis Picks Today: February 7th
- Rus vs Cornet: Rus to win & -3 games
- Kudla vs Albot: Kudla to win
We split out plays on Tuesday, as Roman Burruchaga avoids a pretty bad meltdown to win in three sets, while Daniel Altmaier loses from a set-up in what was a very poor match for him.
For Wednesday, we’ll hope the players we back can close out matches without tripping over themselves, and we’ll do so by heading back to hard-court events. First, we’ll look at Arantxa Rus vs Alize Cornet from the WTA 250 Transylvania Open. Then, it’s Denis Kudla vs Radu Albot from the ATP 250 Dallas Open.
For more daily tennis tips, visit the bettingexpert community, but if you want more expert tips from Jon Reid, visit our Expert Insights section.
In this article:
- Arantxa Rus vs Alize Cornet Expert Tip
- Arantxa Rus Recent Form
- Alize Cornet Recent Form
- Arantxa Rus vs Alize Cornet H2H Stat of the Match
- Denis Kudla vs Radu Albot Expert Tip
- Denis Kudla Recent Form
- Radu Albot Recent Form
- Denis Kudla vs Radu Albot H2H Stat of the Match
- Safer Gambling
Arantxa Rus vs Alize Cornet Prediction: Tall Lefty Undervalued, Even as Favourite
- Picks: Rus to win & Rus -3 games
- Best Odds: 1.63 & 2.04
- Bookmaker: Unibet & Pinnacle (respectively)
- Stakes: 4/10 & 3/10
Odds as at 2:15 am UK Time on February 7th, 2024. Odds may now differ.
She’s been playing some pretty poor tennis, her patented defensive play has let up a bit in recent months, she seems a step later to her spots and because her game has always been fairly underpowered, she doesn’t really possess the offence needed to make up for the declines in those other parts of her game.
Contrast that with Rus, who is playing decent tennis (even on hard courts) of late, has plenty of rally tolerance to stick in long rallies herself and possesses more offensive capabilities, and I have her winning this match much closer to 65-67% of the time than the 61% that the current odds imply.
Read on for more Expert Insights.
Arantxa Rus Recent Form
This match is as much about opposing Cornet as it is backing the Dutchwoman, but it’s also encouraging that Rus has been playing some pretty decent tennis this year. This is even though the early portion of the tennis calendar happens to be played on quicker courts – which aren’t exactly her forte.
Her losses in 2024 have all come against players in the top 40 in Donna Vekic, Elise Mertens and Anna Kalinskaya.
She also has a trio of victories as the underdog and her first-round win this week saw her in the 1.90 range. She won that match by a seven-game margin. This isn’t predictive of success in this coming match, but it does indicate the market may not be pricing her accurately.
She matches up pretty well here too. As a natural clay courter, she plays a high-margin game and is very consistent from the baseline. She shouldn’t give Cornet the unforced errors the Frenchwoman often relies on for success. Yet she also can dial up the pace on the first serve and flattens out her crosscourt forehand and backhands really nicely, which helps her play a more blended style on hard courts and quicker surfaces.
Alize Cornet Recent Form
The 2023 season was a rough one for the 34-year-old veteran from Nice. She won more than one match at the same tournament at the 250 level or above just three times all season and saw her ranking tumble out of the top 100.
Her game – based on athleticism, endurance, court coverage and defensive play – took a hit, with more errors creeping in. Whether that can be chalked up as a rough patch or not is up for debate. I tend to believe it’s because she’s losing a bit of her movement and that has had a domino effect on the rest of her game. If you’re a tad slower, you’re not getting to where you need to be to hit your next shot on time and that leads to more attackable balls or outright errors.
She began this year with a really poor loss down under and has three wins this week so far (she had to come through qualifying), but one was against a local wild card, another was from a set down and via retirement and the third was against a fellow veteran who is struggling so far this year in Yanina Wickmayer.
That brings me to my final point in this handicap. That Tuesday match was a long one. It took almost three hours, and that has me wondering if there isn’t going to be a physicality edge for Rus as this match wears on as well.
Arantxa Rus vs Alize Cornet H2H – Stat of the Match
I often talk about the need to contextualise head-to-head records, and this match is the perfect example of why.
Cornet has won both prior meetings between the two. The first, however, came almost 15 years ago and on clay. To say that match is irrelevant would be an understatement. The other came on grass nearly three years ago (and needed three sets).
Cornet isn’t anywhere near as good as she was in those instances and shouldn’t get credit in the betting markets for those performances.
Denis Kudla vs Radu Albot Prediction: Kudla to Thrive on Lower Bouncing Grandstand
- Pick: Kudla to win
- Best Odds: 1.80
- Bookmaker: bet365
- Stakes: 3/10
Odds as at 2:15 am UK Time on February 7th, 2024. Odds may now differ.
Albot, however, plays a more consistent, grinding style from the baseline, while Kudla is a bit more on the aggressive side. I wouldn’t categorise either of them as power players, but they should both be comfortable in these conditions.
So why do I think Kudla should be a larger favourite than the 1.80 we see on offer? A few reasons. For starters, as I mentioned, he has a bit more offence to his game. The second is that he’s played a few matches in Dallas, while Albot most recently played on clay in South America in a Challenger and then in Davis Cup action for Moldova. Finally, the fact that this match is on Grandstand also plays a role in determining my fair price on this match.
Center Court this year is slightly grittier and higher bouncing, but the secondary court? It’s much more similar to last year’s super fast, low-bouncing courts. That favours Kudla, who has always played his best on grass or hard courts where the bounce is nice and low.
As much as Albot likes hard courts, I’m not sure he’s so fond of lower-bouncing ones.
Read on for more expert insights.
Denis Kudla Recent Form
The American has actually played some pretty decent tennis so far in 2024. It may not appear that way in terms of his record, but let’s look at the actual results. He lost in the second round of qualifying at Melbourne Park, but that was a close three-set match against one of the darlings of the Australian Open, Lukas Klein. If you’ll recall, the powerful Slovakian was within points of defeating Alexander Zverev.
He then went to the Cleveland Challenger semifinals, only losing to one of the best prospects in men’s tennis, Ethan Quinn.
Then it was a tight three-set loss to Nicolas Moreno de Alboran, who has been a solid Challenger Tour player for the better part of a year now.
I think all three of those are somewhat understandable losses, and more importantly, none of those losses deter me from backing him against Albot, who has less firepower than all three of those guys and is probably lower in my power ratings than those who have handed Kudla a loss this season.
Radu Albot Recent Form
After a disappointing January of tennis in Australia that saw him lose in the first round at the Canberra Challenger and in the opening round of Australian Open qualies (the latter as a 1.35 odds favourite), Albot has somehow turned his fortunes around on the red dirt.
It was never a surface that bore much fruit for the 34-year-old in the past, but that may be because he simply wasn’t used to it. Either way, his consistent game may help him in grinding out points and waiting for errors in those conditions, but it’s a different story on the quicker Grandstand court in Dallas.
Without many weapons from the baseline, the veteran will need to land a healthy number of first serves and convert a high percentage of those points.
Even then, there’s no guarantee he will find much success in return. Put simply, he’s the player far more likely to face consistent pressure in his service games, and that makes him the player more likely to lose.
We don’t deal with absolutes in this business, but probabilities, and because of that, I simply cannot have him as a near 50-50 chance on Wednesday.
Denis Kudla vs Radu Albot H2H – Stat of the Match
I can say I’m genuinely surprised that these two have never met before. They’re both over 30 years old, they’ve both played a lot of tennis at the Challenger and ATP 250 level and they both prefer the same surface.
Statistically, Kudla has been much better this year at the Challenger level (106 to 95 in the hold plus break percentage department). The problem with that is obviously the sample size, or lack thereof.
If we expand that to the last year and look at just Challenger results on hard courts, the data is much more even. That’s where the edge in surface speed and bounce comfort comes in, as well as the superior offensive game.
Throw in stronger form, and I do believe that Kudla is deserving of a bit more respect than he’s getting.
SAFER GAMBLING
At bettingexpert, we always take a safe approach to gambling. We’ll never bet more than we can afford or chase losses. For more advice, head to our Safer Gambling hub.
