The second round of the Western & Southern Open is due to conclude on a big fourth day of action at the ATP Cincinnati event as the latest Masters 1000 tournament looks to catch up time after the rain of the last two days.
The rain has meant that we have a bumper day of action to enjoy but such is the amount of matches still to be played the schedule will get underway an hour earlier on Wednesday so there is even more tennis to enjoy than usual, weather permitting.
Center Court
We have three matches in the men’s tournament on the main court on Wednesday. The first two of those come in the day session with the number one seed Daniil Medvedev on show in the first game. He meets the home wildcard Mackenzie McDonald before the Olympic champion hopes to grace the courts for the first time when Alexander Zverev meets a Lloyd Harris who has a recent win over Rafael Nadal on his CV. The night session match should be a cracker as the rising American ace Sebastian Korda takes on the Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Grandstand
We have three matches on this court as well over the course of the day and into the evening. As with the main court, two of the matches come in the day session with the former champion Grigor Dimitrov opening the show when he takes on the heavy hitting of Alexander Bublik. Andy Murray will look to make the last 16 of his first tournament since Wimbledon in the second match when he meets the Wimbledon semi-finalist Hubert Hurkacz before the night session action sees Frances Tiafoe going up against Diego Schwartzman.
Stadium 3
There are four matches on the third court on Wednesday as the bid to catch up on the schedule continues. The Olympic silver medallist Karen Khachanov is first up on this court when he takes on the talented Felix Auger-Aliassime before another Russian takes to the court in the form of Andrey Rublev. He meets the former US Open champion Marin Cilic. The third match of the afternoon sees the recent Washington champion taking on the American number one John Isner before the men’s action on this court concludes with Gael Monfils going up against the Australian ace Alex de Minaur.
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Best of the Rest
Given that we are trying to catch up after the heavy rains of Tuesday there are a number of matches on the outside courts on Wednesday. They come on Court 10 where some star names are on show including the seventh seed Pablo Carreno Busta. Fabio Fognini is another player who is looking to progress from this part of the grounds while Reilly Opelka will be looking to continue his form from last week. Lorenzo Sonego is another looking to make progress.
Betting
Two bets stand out to me over the course of the day on Wednesday. There has been a fair bit of rain around in Cincinnati this week but we should get a clear day here and a very hot and humid one which will speed up conditions nicely for Reilly Opelka. He is in great form after making the final of the Toronto tournament last week where Roberto Bautista Agut and Stefanos Tsitsipas were among his victims and he can add Casper Ruud to his list of beaten foes here. Ruud is better suited to slower courts so he could be up against it here. Opelka’s huge serve will be helped here but he isn’t just a big server these days as we saw last week when he was involved in some excellent rallies in the final with Daniil Medvedev. As long as the amount of tennis he has played hasn’t caught up with him, and there were few signs of that on Tuesday. I make Opelka the favourite here so will take the even money on him.
Another player who can be taken at even money is Gael Monfils who showed in Toronto last week that he might be starting to come to life again. We probably shouldn’t be too surprised because he’s an entertainer and there are people to entertain now whereas it must have been hard to get himself going for playing in front of nobody for the better part of a year. He takes on Alex de Minaur who arrived here bang out of form and looked to be making another tame exit in the opening round on Monday when Filip Krajinovic served up a first set bagel to him. The Australian was a fortunate man that the rain came and allowed him to reset and probably force the Serb to struggle after a while away from the tour and having to get up and running again. There shouldn’t be the problems of the rain here so if Monfils gets on top here I think he can add to the two wins he picked up in Toronto and his good opening win here.
Tips
Back R.Opelka to beat C.Ruud for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back G.Monfils to beat A.de Minaur for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
Back him here:
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