Don’t miss our top tennis plays for this Monday’s action in Rome with the Internazionali BNL D’Italia 1st round taking place. Bookmakers Review breaks down the fixtures below and lists the best available odds from green listed bookmakers.
WTA Rome – Jankovic vs. Riske
At the age of 32, Jelena Jankovic’s glorious days are long gone. For the first time in more than 10 years, the former world no.1 is ranked outside the top 60. Despite her lack of success in recent months, Jankovic came close to beating Dominika Cibulkova in Madrid last week. Adding to this, playing in Rome brings great memories to Jelena with the Serbian winning the title back in 2007 and 2008.
After reaching the Mutua Madrid Open 2nd round, Alison Riske secured her career-high ranking this week as the world no.36. Despite her recent improvements on clay, Riske is far from an expert on this surface. Known for her outstanding counter punching skills, it’s not easy to hit the ball as early as Alison does on red dirt due to the unpredictable bounce.
This will be the 2nd career meeting between these two players with Jankovic leading on the h2h by 1 – 0 after her victory in the US Open six years ago.
Looking now to the odds for this match, the bookmakers expect a close affair with Riske available at 91/100 with William Hill while Pinnacle offers 1/1 for Jankovic’s victory. Even though Alison is going through a great moment in her career, the slow court conditions in Rome are far from ideal for her game style. On the other hand, Jelena presents an outstanding 32 – 12 career record on this event. With this in mind, our suggestion is for you to place a bet on Jankovic to secure a spot in the 2nd round.
ATP Rome – Querrey vs. Pouille
After reaching the Internazionali BNL D’Italia semi-finals last year, Lucas Pouille is looking for another successful campaign in the capital of Italy. Despite his disappointing defeat in the opening round in Madrid against Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Pouille is going through the best moment in his career. Even though Lucas can play at a very high level in any surface, clay is definitely his favourite with a phenomenal 81.82% record on red dirt in 2017.
The world no.28 – Sam Querrey – returns to action this week after one-month absence. Famous for his powerful serve, the slow court conditions in Rome are far from ideal for his game style- Adding to this, Sam holds a terrible 2 – 7 career record on this event main draw with his last victory taking place five years ago against Jarkko Nieminen.
These two players are no strangers with Querrey winning their previous encounter at the Mutua Madrid Open last season.
Despite Sam’s lead on the h2h, Pouille is a much better player nowadays. In addition, the conditions in Rome are much slower than the ones in Madrid. With Lucas playing at such a high level in recent months and due to Querrey’s lack of success on this event, it’s impossible to go against the French on this contest. Therefore, Pouille is the undeniable favourite to win this match at 2/5 at Pinnacle while Bet365 offers 2/1 for Sam’s triumph.
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