The first medals will be won and lost in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics tennis competition on Friday when the men’s doubles bronze and gold medal matches are played out. The men’s semi-finals and the mixed doubles semi-finals are also on the card at the Ariake Tennis Centre.
The main attention will be on the two men’s semi-finals as Novak Djokovic continues his quest for the Golden Slam. He could still win two gold medals because he will be involved in the mixed doubles semis as well.
Men’s Singles
Four men know they have two goes at securing a medal at the Olympics on Friday but in order to play for the one they came for they will need to win their semi-final. Karen Khachanov takes on Pablo Carreno Busta in the opening semi-final and you sense that will be a tight and tense affair given the size of the prize which would be massive for both men. That makes it quite hard to call a winner.
The other semi-final is the headline act as Novak Djokovic takes on Alexander Zverev in a real heavyweight showdown. The winner of this match will be favourite to land the gold medal so everything is on the line here. Zverev actually tends to play well against Djokovic which makes me think that over 20.5 games is a serious runner here but I’m not really wanting to take on the world number one who has just wiped Kei Nishikori out for the loss of two games.
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Doubles
We have the medal matches in the men’s doubles on Friday and we already know the gold and silver medals will go to Croatia but we don’t know whether Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic will claim the gold or whether the partnership of Ivan Dodig and Marin Cilic will. Mektic and Pavic are the number one doubles team in the world and won Wimbledon earlier in the month. That was their ninth title this year so unless Marin Cilic has a serving day in keeping with the US Open in 2014 it is hard to go against Pavic and Mektic. There isn’t really much I like in the bronze medal match between Tennys Sandgren and Austin Krajicek who go up against Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus.
I actually think the best bet might come in the mixed doubles where I’m very surprised the French Open finalists Aslan Karatsev and Elena Vesnina are the outsiders to see off Novak Djokovic and his partner Nina Stojanovic. That is nothing against the Serbian pair but Vesnina has been one of the best doubles players in the world for the last decade or so and clearly her run with Karatsev in France highlights that. If that wasn’t enough she then partnered Veronika Kudermetova to the Wimbledon final. Her doubles nous could be the difference at a big price. In the other match Ash Barty and John Peers look hard to oppose but Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev have both been in good singles form this year so maybe that is closer to call than the odds suggest.
Tips
Back A.Karatsev & E.Vesnina to beat N.Djokovic & N.Stojanovic for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Betfair
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