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Horse Racing Thursday Tennis Best Bet: ATP French Open, Aslan Karatsev vs Frances Tiafoe
Aslan Karatsev vs Frances Tiafoe Best Bet: Thursday, June 1st
Rough go for Lucas Pouille, who couldn’t find the court and didn’t play his best tennis until he was already down and out.
The second round wraps up on Thursday in Paris, and we’ll look at the matchup featuring Aslan Karatsev and Frances Tiafoe.
In this article:
Aslan Karatsev vs Frances Tiafoe Preview
June 1st, 12:30 (UK Time)
Much like the women’s preview, I’m going to go with an incredibly talented baseliner here that has the ability to play explosive tennis as well.
Karatsev had a really rough go for about a year that cost him a ton of rankings points and saw him plunge out of the top-100 in the world.
That stretch has been behind him for a few weeks, and the Russian has forced his way right back into the world’s top-65.
Armed with explosive groundstrokes, a decent serve and a high ceiling to his talent, Karatsev has won 11 of his last 12 matches on the red clay, beating players like Jan-Lennard Struff, Laslo Djere and Daniil Medvedev along the way.
Now he takes on Tiafoe, who is no clay courter and has always been much more successful on quicker courts. The American profiles decently for the clay, with power to cut through the surface and court coverage that should be able to track down almost every ball that’s hit his way, but the untimely errors tend to sink him in these slower conditions.
In fact, outside of a title on quicker har tru clay in Houston (one of the weakest fields of the clay season), his results have been underwhelming. In fact, even on that title run, he had a bye and won three of his four matches against pure hard courters.
He hasn’t shown the form that leads me to believe he should beat Karatsev, nor has he beaten anyone that plays as well as the Russian can on the dirt.
Aslan Karatsev vs Frances Tiafoe Best Bet
It’s incredible how long it’s taking for the market to start showing Karatsev respect. The results haven’t shown any signs of slowing down, and he’s been consistently undervalued.
I have backed him now in four of his last six matches, and the only loss came from a set up in his rematch with Struff in Madrid.
Prior to that, he had a string of wins as an underdog to boot.
Against a poor clay courter, who is only being valued at the same level as Karatsev thanks to his reputation and ranking, I’m happy to back him once again to advance.
- Selection: Karatsev to win
- Best Odds: 1.91 (Bet365)
- Stakes: 4/10
Odds as at 1:00 am UK Time on June 1st, 2023. Odds may now differ.
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