With most of the ATP Tour’s top names taking a break from the heated action at Roland Garros, the field is wide open at s-Hertogenbosch for the Ricoh Open this week.
Let’s find out below which players are worth looking out for to keep your weekly tennis betting action going.
2017 Ricoh Open Men’s Singles Predictions and Preview
Favorites: Alexander Zverev and Marin Cilic
Although Alexander Zverev suffered a first-round exit to Spain’s Fernando Verdasco at Roland Garros, the 20-year-old German is still entering s-Hertogenbosch with great momentum. Prior to the French Open, Zverev shocked World No. 2 Novak Djokovic at the Italian Open final for his third title of the season. Furthermore, two of his three tournaments won came in the month of May.
Meanwhile, Croatia’s Marin Cilic is this week’s tournament’s top-seeded entrant who had a phenomenal showing at Roland Garros, as the seventh-best male tennis player in the world made it all the way to the quarterfinal in Paris before being ousted by Stan Wawrinka. Even though Cilic’s run ended at the hands of a top-10 player, he’s had a victory over such an opponent prior to the French Open already, beating World No. 6 Milos Raonic to capture the title at Istanbul.
Sleepers: Alexandr Dolgopolov and Andreas Seppi
Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov has not had a fantastic 2017 campaign, but he’s already tasted victory this year unlike most of his peers by pulling off the upset against World No. 9 Kei Nishikori at the Argentina Open back in February. Dolgopolov should like his chances of securing another title this week in The Netherlands, as his career-winning percentage of 56.4 on grass is tops amongst all other surfaces.
The same could be said about Italian Andreas Seppi, who sports an even better 57.3-percent winning percentage on the verdant turf throughout his career. However, Seppi’s last extended run at a tournament was at the Australian Open at the start of the year, going four rounds deep in Melbourne. Then again, he’s also off to a good start at s-Hertogenbosch already, having just defeated Japan’s Tatsuma Ito in the first round of play.
Long Shot: Evgeny Donskoy
After a rare win over Roger Federer at Dubai in February, Evgeny Donskoy was able to capitalize on that achievement by winning the next tournament in Zhuhai, China over Thomas Fabbiano. On the other hand, that victory was from a mere ATP Challenger Tour event.
Further hurting Donskoy’s stock is that he’d also suffered a total of 11 first-round exits from tournaments this year, with five of them coming from the same ATP Challenger Tour level where the field of competitors isn’t as stacked as those from the ATP Tour’s main draw.
