The tennis competition concludes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Sunday and it does so with three more gold medals to be decided on a day which is likely to see plenty of competitive tennis and pure emotion as players strive for an iconic victory.
We have two doubles matches with come along either side of the men’s singles final where we will crown a surprise champion when you consider just how strongly favoured Novak Djokovic was when the competition began.
Women’s Doubles
The last day begins with the women’s doubles final where Belinda Bencic will dream of a second gold medal in as many days after she won the singles gold on Saturday. Her and her partner Viktoriya Golubic take on the daunting Czech pair of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, the Australian Open finalists and French Open champions.
The Czechs are very strong favourites to win this final and when you consider how experienced they are as a pairing and the success they have had together, that looks perfectly understandable. They have had to come through a deciding set in the last three rounds though so it isn’t as though they have dominated opponents. I wonder if this match will be one too far for Bencic. I’m sure she’ll give it her all but she climbed her personal Everest on Saturday and it might be hard to go again. I’m no 1/3 backer so I’ll sit this one out.
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Men’s Singles
It was almost impossible to consider that we would get to the final of the men’s singles and the name of Novak Djokovic wouldn’t be appearing in it but that is the case after the Serbian star lost to Alexander Zverev in the semi-final. The German ace now faces off against Karen Khachanov for the gold medal and what would be the biggest win in the career of both so far.
The first thing to note about this final is that unlike previous Olympic finals it will be the best of three sets and not five. Zverev is a pretty warm order as you would expect after his win over Djokovic, a win which was well deserved. Khachanov had a good win in the semi-final too though against an inspired up to that point Pablo Carreno Busta. My gut feeling here is that Khachanov is a big price but I think the safer bet in the match is over 22.5 games. I fully expect the serve to dominate in this final so this could come in should we get two close sets. It cruises in with a third set. Interestingly Khachanov has won their last two meetings but the most recent of those was in 2019. Zverev is a better player now but perhaps not enough to get past the Russian before a 23rd game comes along.
Mixed Doubles
As ever in a major championship the last match to be played is the mixed doubles final. We already know which nation the gold and silver medals are going to, Russia will take home both, what we will find out on Sunday morning is just which pair will write their name in history and which one will be reduced to the role of just having had a good week as Aslan Karatsev and Elena Vesnina take on the pairing of Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
I took Karatsev and Vesnina to win their semi-final at odds against but they were fortunate enough to be able to feast on Nina Stojanovic in that match because I didn’t think Karatsev played all that well, although to be fair he was up against Novak Djokovic on the other side of the net. I don’t see them jumping all over the game of Pavlyuchenkova here though. She is a classy operator in her own right and not far behind Vesnina even in the doubles sphere. Rublev is the better player of the two men so it might be that this match is on the racquets of the better singles duo. Vesnina and Karatsev have seen off three decent pairs and are most established as a partnership but the 7/5 is too big on their opponents here.
Tips
Back A.Zverev vs K.Khachanov – Over 22.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Back it here:
Back A.Pavlyuchenkova & A.Rublev to beat E.Vesnina & A.Karatsev for a 3/10 stake at 2.40 with BetVictor
Back them here:
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