The action continues in Madrid with the Mutua Madrid Open Day 3 taking place this Monday. Bookmakers Review breaks down the fixtures below and lists the best available odds from green listed bookmakers.
ATP Madrid – Bellucci vs. Cuevas
Playing in altitude brings the best out of Thomaz Bellucci. Besides reaching the Mutua Madrid Open semi-finals back in 2011, Bellucci is also a two-time champion in Gstaad. Due to his low ranking, Thomaz had to play the qualifying on this event with two good victories over Evgeny Donskoy and Mikhail Kukushkin. As we mentioned in previous analysis, playing the qualifying is always an advantage since the players are already used to the game conditions.
Pablo Cuevas returns to action after a disappointing defeat in the opening round in Barcelona against Karen Khachanov. Known as one of the best clay-court players on the ATP World Tour, Cuevas presents an outstanding 66.52% winning record on red dirt throughout his career. However, Pablo’s record in Madrid is far from brilliant with the Uruguayan winning only 40.00% of the matches on this event.
These two players know each other very well with each of them winning three of their previous six encounters.
Due to Bellucci’s solid performances in the qualifying and tremendous success in altitude, the value is clearly on the Brazilian side at 9/5 at Pinnacle. On the other hand, BetVictor offers 1/2 for Cuevas’ victory. Besides the value on Thomaz’s moneyline, betting on his +1.5 Set Handicap at 71/100 at Pinnacle is also a great approach for this contest.
WTA Madrid – Bouchard vs. Sharapova
Maria Sharapova continues her successful return to competition. After reaching the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix semi-finals, Sharapova featured an outstanding comeback in the opening round in Madrid against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. Playing in Madrid brings great memories to the Russian after winning the title back in 2014. Known as one of the best returners in the game, Maria won 49.02% of the points played on Lucic-Baroni’s serve in the previous round.
Pointed as one of the most promising players in recent years, Eugenie Bouchard couldn’t live up to expectations. Despite starting 2017 with a good run in Australia, Eugenie lost the following five matches on the WTA Tour. Looking now at Bouchard’s campaign in Madrid, the former world no.5 reaches this stage of the competition after a three-set victory over Alize Cornet.
This will be the 5th career meeting between these two players with Sharapova leading on the h2h by 4 – 0.
According to Bouchard: “Sharapova is a cheater and should be banned for life” after testing positive for meldonium last season. From the players who shared their thoughts about Sharapova’s return, Eugenie was, without any doubt, one of the harshest. Due to the tension between the two players, this is a much anticipated contest. Despite the off-court rivalry, the bookmakers expect a straightforward win for the Russian with Sharapova available at 11/50 at
BetVictor while Bet365 offers 3/1 for Bouchard to secure a place in the 3rd round. Due to Maria’s recent performances, we have to agree with her favouritism. Therefore, we’ll take Sharapova’s -1.5 Set Handicap at 17/20 at Pinnacle as the best betting approach for this match.
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