The Western and Southern Open continues on Wednesday as the first round of the ATP Cincinnati tournament concludes and the second round of the latest Masters 1000 event gets underway on a busy day in Ohio.
This is the day where the big seeds enter the tournament which means that we get to see the likes of Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev for the first time as they chase spots in the last 16 of the latest US Open prep event.
Center Court
Wednesday is a day where there are three ATP matches on the main court which means that the day session begins with the first two of them. Stefanos Tsitsipas is the big draw to open up the show when he is in first round action against the big serving Jan-Lennard Struff before the number one seed Jannik Sinner opens up his campaign for a first Cincinnati title when he meets the home qualifier Alex Michelsen. We have to wait until the final match of the night session for the other men’s game which sees Daniil Medvedev in second round action against the Czech player Jiri Lehecka.
Grandstand
Just the two matches take place in the ATP draw on the second court on Wednesday with the first one not coming until a couple of women’s games have been completed. There is one men’s match in the day session which sees the home hop Seb Korda going up against the former US Open semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta before the night session begins with the other men’s game. That looks to be a tasty encounter between the in form Italian ace Lorenzo Musetti and the American player Frances Tiafoe, who is looking for a confidence boost ahead of the US Open.
Special Offer
Open a new Sporting Index account and bet £10 on the ATP Tour (min odds 1/2) to get £20 in free bets (2x£10 free bets) to use on any sports market! Click the image below to take advantage of this great offer! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Responsibly.
Outside Courts
There is plenty of action on the other courts in the ATP draw on Wednesday with first round and second round matches taking place. Three first round matches take place on Court 3 including two which probably deserve a higher profile than they are getting as Holger Rune meets Matteo Berrettini and Gael Monfils meets the Rogers Cup winner Alexei Popyrin. Felix Auger-Aliassime is also in action there while on Court 4 we have the British number one Jack Draper on show as he and Matteo Arnaldi are in first round games against Jaume Munar and Tomas Martin Etcheverry respectively. There is also action on Court 8 too for those who have the streams and want to watch those matches.
Betting
I’ve been waiting for the Alexei Popyrin first round match to come around because there just has to be a comedown from winning the biggest title in his career to playing on an outside court a little under 48 hours later. That is before we consider the amount of matches that the Australian had to play in a relatively short space of time. He had to play a quarter final and a semi-final on the same day and then the final the next day and that was only Sunday and Monday so there is a lot of tennis in his legs and then he has to get to Cincinnati and go in different conditions. If I am being honest, I would rather have someone stronger than Gael Monfils to take Popyrin on with but at least we know the Frenchman is fresh, can hold his own on a hard court and has the power in his groundstrokes to get Popyrin moving and make this hard work for him. At the prices, with everything the Australian has endured in the last three days Monfils has to be the bet here.
I guess in a way I am contradicting myself by taking Matteo Arnaldi to win on Wednesday given that he made the semi-final in Montreal but the Italian has had the extra day to recover and didn’t have the high of winning a tournament and he faces a Tomas Martin Etcheverry who is 3:5 on a hard court this year and 20:30 on them in his career so the Argentine looks like someone to take on. Arnaldi had some good results in Montreal so while he might not be as fresh as I would like him to be, he will be full of confidence and I would expect him to have too much for a player whose best results by a mile come on the clay. Etcheverry did have a good win in the first round last week against Nicolas Jarry but I expect the better all-round game of Arnaldi to come out on top here.
Tips
Back G.Monfils to beat A.Popyrin for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with BetVictor
Back M.Arnaldi to beat T-M.Etcheverry for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
Back him here:
