Tennis best bets for the action at the Miami Open on Tuesday, March 28th
We're about a week into the Miami Open at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, and the second half of the Sunshine Double has been fun thus far. We're looking forward to watching some more good tennis from the Sunshine State over the next couple of days. With that in mind, keep reading for our tennis best bets for Tuesday, March 28th, and make sure you check out our Pro Picks page throughout the day — you never know when Zach might add more plays!
MORE: Here are the tennis odds for every match you'll see today!
Taylor Fritz vs. Holger Rune
It’s hard not to fall in love with Rune as a +135 underdog against Fritz. Both players have made significant strides with their games over the last year or so, and they’re going to consistently be threats to win tournaments moving forward. With that said, this is something of a heavyweight battle at this point in the tournament, so you’re going to want to have your popcorn ready for this one.
Fritz is the better server between these two players, but Rune’s first serve is nothing to sneeze at. The 19-year-old also happens to have the advantage when it comes to returning, court coverage and baseline play. When you factor all of that in, a decent argument can be made that the wrong player is favored in this match.
This will be the first-ever meeting between these tremendous talents, so we don’t have much history to draw on when previewing this matchup. However, there’s not a lot that suggests Fritz should be favored by this much, so we’re simply playing the value and jumping on Rune. The crowd will firmly be in Fritz’s corner, but the Danish youngster doesn’t mind playing the role of the villain. In fact, he seems to enjoy getting under the skin of his opponents.
Bet: Rune ML (+135)
Karen Khachanov vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas was able to earn a tough win over Cristian Garin on Monday, but he’s going to have a much tougher time getting by Khachanov. Garin is a solid tennis player, but he’s at his best on clay. These are not even close to the types of conditions that suit his game, so it was somewhat alarming that it took three sets for Tsitsipas to get by there. And that level of play won’t cut it against Khachanov, who dismantled Jiri Lehecka on Monday.
Tsitsipas recently claimed that he has been forcing himself to play a bit more than he’d like because of ranking points. The Greek star is trying to work his way through a nagging shoulder injury, but he hasn’t really taken the necessary time for it to heal. That has led to some lackluster results, and he’s now in serious danger of losing to Khachanov.
Khachanov has no clear holes in his game, and he is looking to make a deep run in Miami this week. With him locked in and playing well, it’s just hard not to take him against an iffy version of Tsitsipas. This is also something of a contrarian special, with Tsistipas being ranked third in the world and having gone 6-0 in tour-level meetings with Khachanov. A casual bettor will take one quick glance at this matchup and jump on Tsitsipas. But that’s exactly what the oddsmakers want. We're going the other way with it.
Bet: Khachanov ML (+105)
Anastasia Potapova vs. Jessica Pegula
Potapova is coming off a tremendous straight-set win over world No. 23 Qinwen Zheng. That was a match in which both players were performing at a high level, but Potapova came up with the goods when it mattered most. After seeing her play like that, it’s a little tough to not play her to take a set at -120 odds.
While Pegula is one of the top players in the world, there isn’t anything about her game that is overwhelming. She’s just good at pretty much everything, which makes her a tough player to beat. But that doesn’t mean she goes out and beats up on her opponents. With that said, Potapova should be able to keep this match close as long as she’s not spraying unforced errors.
These two actually just met at Indian Wells, where Potapova took the first set, 6-3, Pegula then went on to come away with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. But it was a very good match and it could have gone either way. There’s no reason to believe this one will be any different, so these are great odds on Potapova to just force a decider.
Bet: Potapova +1.5 Sets (-120)