The first round concludes and the second round gets underway at the National Bank Open out in Toronto on Tuesday as another excellent schedule of tennis action takes place in the latest Masters 1000 event of the season.
Those who were not in action in the opening round on Monday will get their campaign underway on Tuesday and we also have a Grand Slam finalist on show in the one second round match which is on the card too.
Center Court
We begin slightly later than on the outside courts on the Center Court and when we do it will be the former champion Andy Murray who gets play underway. He faces a potentially awkward test against Lorenzo Sonego for a place in the second round. When they are done Alexander Zverev gets his campaign underway when he meets the man who made the final in Washington last week in Tallon Griekspoor. The night session opens up with a first round match which sees the Canadian number one Felix Auger-Aliassime taking on Max Purcell, who came through qualifying to be here. We conclude on the Center Court with a second round clash between Jiri Lehacka and Casper Ruud.
Grandstand
As was the case on the opening day of the tournament we have five matches on the Grandstand to enjoy and they are all first round clashes. We begin with Tomas Martin Etcheverry going up against Sebastian Korda before Nicolas Jarry looks to make progress. He takes on the French player Ugo Humbert. The pick of the matches on this court on Tuesday is the third one on show where Alex de Minaur goes up against Cameron Norrie before Dan Evans looks to build on his win in Washington when he takes on the home wildcard Gabriel Diallo. The action concludes on the Grandstand with Ben Shelton meeting Bernabe Zapata Miralles.
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Court 1
That all leaves us with three singles matches on Court 1 which also all come from the first round. We open up the action with Emil Ruusuvuori going up against the qualifier Marcos Giron. When they are done another American player takes to the court in Mackenzie McDonald. He meets Aslan Karatsev who has been a little quiet recently and will want to find some form this week. The last singles match on this court sees the lucky loser Aleksandar Vukic taking on Borna Coric for whom this is a big couple of weeks as he defends his Cincinnati title points next week.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the second day with the first of them coming via Alex de Minaur to beat Cameron Norrie. Norrie had an excellent time of it on the hard courts in 2021 and 2022 but 2023, in the latter part of it at least, has been much quieter and I think he is vulnerable to a de Minaur who comes in here off the back of reaching the final in Mexico last week. Along the way, de Minaur saw off Tommy Paul among others and that run should have given him plenty of confidence. Norrie has taken time off since Wimbledon but returned with an opening defeat in Mexico last week from a set up against the world number 129 which suggests a slight lack of confidence. De Minaur has a good record against left-handers and I think he can extend that here.
The other bet I like is for Max Purcell to run Felix Auger-Aliassime close in the opening match of the night session. Auger-Aliassime is very much struggling at the minute. He arrives back on home soil having won just one of his last eight matches and is now just 13-12 for the year after a 2022 where he landed four titles. It might be that a return to home surroundings brings out his best game but there is no sign of it aside from that. He now faces Purcell who has won a couple of matches in qualifying and who is pretty bonkers 39-10 on a hard court this year with three titles. The majority of those wins have been at a lower level but it all builds confidence, which is something FAA looks completely devoid of right now. If this match wasn’t in Canada I would take Purcell to win outright but the home crowd might find something in Auger-Aliassime but even if the Canadian wins it is very rare he does so without a scare or two along the way so I like Purcell with a 3.5 game start.
Tips
Back A.de Minaur to beat C.Norrie for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Betway
Back M.Purcell (+3.5 games) to beat F.Auger-Aliassime for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with 888sport
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