Tennis best bets for the Mutua Madrid Open – Tuesday, May 2nd
The Mutua Madrid Open is one of the most exciting clay-court events of the season, as this is a 1000-level tournament for both the men and the women. This is one of the biggest non-majors of the entire year, so most of the stars are out on the red clay over the next week. We’re going to have you covered with tennis best bets for every big tournament of the season, so keep reading for our tennis predictions for Tuesday, May 2nd and make sure you keep coming back for more!
MORE: Check out our Pro Picks page for everything our experts have on May 2
Borna Coric vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Coric is one of the most interesting players on tour. The Croatian has struggled with injuries throughout his career, but he occasionally comes back and reminds everybody how good he is. He did it in Cincinnati last year and appears to be doing it in Madrid this week. Coric made a statement with a 7-6 (3), 6-3 win over Hubert Hurkacz last round, and he’ll now look to beat Davidovich Fokina. The Spaniard did earn an incredible win over Holger Rune in his last match, but that one took a lot out of him. Davidovich Fokina was also dealing with some serious cramps in that match, and that makes it hard to believe his conditioning will be there here. Coric already has the baseline power to match Davidovich Fokina and make him uncomfortable, and the Croatian is also a little more trustworthy in bigger points. For all of those reasons, we’re backing Coric as an underdog here. Not much separates these players, so this is some good value.
Bet: Coric ML (+140)
Alexander Zverev vs. Carlos Alcaraz
There’s really no denying that Alcaraz is the best player in the world right now, but the young Spaniard hasn’t looked all that great in Madrid. He dropped a set in his first match against Emil Ruusuvuori, despite being a massive favorite to win that one. Alcaraz then looked a bit better in a straight-set win against Grigor Dimitrov, but the performance was hardly what we saw out of the 19-year-old in Barcelona. With that in mind, there does seem to be an opportunity for Zverev to make this a tight match. Zverev hasn’t quite broken through and turned in any big results to start the 2023 season, but he has looked dangerously close to regaining his top-10 form. That makes it pretty easy to buy into Zverev finding a way to keep this one close — and potentially winning a set. Zverev is actually 3-1 in four career meetings with Alcaraz, but the two haven’t met since last year’s French Open. That was when Zverev was at the peak of his powers, but the 26-year-old believes he can beat Alcaraz. The same can’t be said for 99% of the player on the ATP Tour and believing is half the battle. That’s why we’re taking Zverev to cover the game spread.
Bet: Zverev +4.5 Games (-135)
Make sure you check the Pro Picks page throughout the day. As odds begin to move, I might add more selections there. There were was a two-unit winner posted there on Monday, which ended up making the losses in the story sting a little less.