The opening day of the ATP Miami Open sees a bunch of first round matches taking place around the grounds at the Hard Rock Stadium as the second Masters 1000 tournament gets going in intriguing fashion.
As ever with these 12-day Masters 1000 events we have to wait until later in the week for the seeded players to come to the party but there are still plenty of recognisable names battling it out on Wednesday.
Stadium Court
The Hard Rock Stadium itself is where everyone wants to play and there will be three men’s matches taking place on this court. We have to wait for a very good looking women’s match to be played out before the first of those comes along and when it does Alexander Bublik will go up against J.J. Wolf before the day session is closed out by Andy Murray meeting Dusan Lajovic. The third men’s match comes in the night session and sees two American players going at it when the former champion John Isner faces the wildcard Emilio Nava.
Grandstand
Just the two men’s matches take place on the Grandstand court and they start and finish the day. The opening match of the two sees another American player taking to the court when Brandon Nakashima goes up against the German player Oscar Otte. We have to wait until the final match of the night session for the other game. That sees two French players going at it when Ugo Humbert meets Gael Monfils.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Butch Buchholz Court
Two more men’s matches take place over on the Butch Buchholz court but not until three women’s matches have been completed so we will be entering the night session by the time that Kyle Edmund takes to the court in the first of them. He meets the promising Yibing Wu before two veterans of the scene battle it out in the second game to close out the action on this court. That sees Fabio Fognini and Jan-Lannard Struff going at it.
Best of the Rest
There are plenty of other matches taking place around the grounds on Wednesday with Marton Fucsovics, Alexei Popyrin and the winner of the Phoenix challenger last week in Nuno Borges all on show over on Court 1. Court 5 also has men’s matches on it with Ilya Ivashka and Guido Pella among the players who are competing in that part of the complex while Taro Daniel and Laslo Djere will take to Court 2 over the course of Wednesday.
Betting
There are two bets that I like the look of on the opening day of the competition and they both come over on Court 1. The first of them is for Alexei Popyrin to beat Mikael Ymer. These two men in the Phoenix event last week and Popyrin won 62 62 and I’m not sure much will have changed between then and now for the result to be reversed. The ball might not fly quite as well through the air but Popyrin earned himself a ridiculously high 17 break points in that match and just dominated it from the outset. His serve should get through the court here and I think he is going to be tough to beat in these conditions. It might not be quite as heavily one-sided as their clash last week but when it is said and done I expect Popyrin to be going into the next round.
The other bet I like is for Nuno Borges to continue his good recent run when he takes on Emil Ruusuvuori in the match which follows the Popyrin one. We are probably getting towards the stage where fatigue might come and get the Portuguese player but the first round of a Masters 1000 event might just inspire him enough to find one more performance. Ruusuvuori hasn’t really started the season well so he will just want to win this match rather than look to come through big or anything like that. Borges has won in Monterrey and Phoenix and qualified for this over the last month and if he has enough in the legs I think he’ll win this too but just in case the gas tank hits empty at some point I’ll back him with the 4.5 game start.
Tips
Back A.Popyrin to beat M.Ymer for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back N.Borges (+4.5 games) to beat E.Ruusuvuori for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
