The ATP Tour heads down to Florida this week for the Delray Beach Open, a 250 event which has attracted a decent field as we begin to head towards the first Masters 1000 tournament of the new decade next month.
Radu Albot enjoyed himself here last year, winning the only title of his career to date, and he is back looking to make a successful defence, but some big names have entered looking to pick up a morale boosting trophy of their own.
Recent Winners
2019 – Radu Albot
2018 – Frances Tiafoe
2017 – Jack Sock
2016 – Sam Querrey
2015 – Ivo Karlovic
2014 – Marin Cilic
2013 – Ernests Gulbis
2012 – Kevin Anderson
2011 – Juan Martin del Potro
2010 – Ernests Gulbis
The Format
This ATP 250 event is a pretty simple format. 32 men will start the week in a straight knockout event over the best of three sets throughout to determine out champion on Sunday afternoon. Unlike in some tournaments of this kind there are no byes or anything. Everyone is in from round one. There is a tiebreak in the final set should it reach 6-6 rather than any of the swanky formats we have seen on the tour recently.
Top Half
Nick Kyrgios is the highest ranked player in the field and he is the number one seed accordingly. He had a decent spell in Australia earlier in the year and it will be interesting to see how he goes here. Three other seeds are in this half of the draw. They are the Eastbourne champion Taylor Fritz, Australian player John Millman and the French debutant here in Ugo Humbert who arrives with a big reputation.
Some decent names who are not seeded are also in this part of the draw as well. They include the New York Open winner Kyle Edmund, Miomir Kecmanovic and the other British entry Cameron Norrie, who had to qualify to make it into the draw. Former winner Frances Tiafoe is in this section of the draw, as are Jordan Thompson, Yoshihito Nishioka, Jiri Vesely and Jason Jung.
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Bottom Half
It is the big serving Milos Raonic who heads up the seedings in the bottom half of the draw and with his power serve he will be expected to go deep in the competition. The same can be said of American ace Reilly Opelka, although his form has been mixed to say the least. The other two seeds are the defending champion Radu Albot, who will want to go well here, and the French throwback Adrian Mannarino.
Jack Sock would probably be the biggest name of those who are not seeded in the bottom half. He has been given a wildcard into the event and will be wanting to take advantage of that. Ryan Harrison is another American who has been given a wildcard while Damir Dzumhur should set a decent standard if he can find his better form. Steve Johnson, New York runner up Andreas Seppi, Bernard Tomic, two-time champion Ernests Gulbis and Mackenzie McDonald are all capable of deep runs too.
Betting
Number one seeds don’t have the best record in this event and with Nick Kyrgios pulling out of New York last week with a shoulder issue I’m not sure he is the good thing he might have been in Australia last month. There are doubts over the form of Milos Raonic as well while a couple of the other seeds such as Reilly Opelka and Radu Albot have questionable form. This is actually an event where the qualifiers go well but I’m going to go for a seeded player at a decent price.
That is John Millman, who was last seen giving it up to Roger Federer in the Australian Open. He has been spotted practicing ahead of the tournament so it looks like he’ll play here and the slow conditions should really suit him. It is always slow here anyway but the rain in Florida in recent days will only slow things up further. That brings the better movers into play and Millman is certainly one of those. He’s been in decent form in 2020 as a whole and made the final in Tokyo in October, losing to Novak Djokovic. He’ll be facing nothing of that class here and at 25/1 could be a sleeper who goes well.
Tips
Back J.Millman to win Delray Beach Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
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