We had tremendous success in the first tennis Grand Slam in the 2019 season. We predicted both Australian Open winners in Novak Djokovic ($2.25) and Naomi Osaka ($15) and hit on a few of our other value markets as well.
We now shift our focus to the next lot of ATP events starting in the early hours of Tuesday 5th February (AEDT). There are three week long events set to take place that include ATP Cordoba (Argentina), Montepellier (France), and Sofia (Bulgaria). Here, we’ve analysed all three ATP 250 events and have come up with our best title hope for each tournament. Good luck to everyone following!
2019 ATP Preview & Betting Tips
ATP Cordoba (Argentina)
The Cordoba Open makes its ATP Tour debut in the 2019 season. Situated just over 400 miles northwest of Argentina’s capital city Buenos Aires, the city of Cordoba will host the first clay court event of the season.
Top Seeds
(1) Fabio Fognini (ITA) - Rank 15
(2) Marco Cecchinato (ITA) - Rank 19
(3) Diego Schwartzmann (ARG) - Rank 20
(4) Pablo Carreno Busta (SPA) - Rank 23
(5) Nicolas Jarry (CHI) - Rank 41
(6) Malek Jaziri (TUN) - Rank 43
(7) Leonardo Mayer (ARG) - Rank 49
(8) Guido Pella (ARG) - Rank 60
The Cordoba Open represents the toughest market of the three ATP events this week. The fact that it’s a new event and also the first clay court event of the season means there’s a lot of unknown surrounding the tournament. However, of all the top seeds we really like how Pablo Carreno Busta is drawn here. He gets the Bye first up due to being a top four seed and has a relatively friendly draw until the final with clay court specialist Marco Cecchinato the main man standing in his way from the bottom half. There’s the obvious threat of World Number 15 Fabio Fognini in the top half, but he has a much tougher run to the final and will have to get through home town hero Diego Schwartzman, as well as a few dangerous young guns on his way to the final. All in all, we see the veteran Spaniard as the best value here.
Pablo Carreno Busta Win
$4.50
ATP Montepellier (France)
The Open Sud de France was originally held in outdoor conditions in its inaugural season in 2010. However, two years later it moved to a venue called the Sud de France Arena, which is located in Montepellier, France. The tournament is played on hard court (indoor) and was last won by Lucas Pouille in 2018 (def Richard Gasquet 7-6, 6-4).
Top Seeds
(1) Lucas Pouille (FRA) - Rank 17
(2) David Goffin (BEL) - Rank 21
(3) Denis Shapovalov (CAN) - Rank 25
(4) Gilles Simon (FRA) - Rank 31
(5) Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) - Rank 32
(6) Jeremy Chardy (FRA) - Rank 35
(7) Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) – Rank 44
(8) Benoit Paire (FRA) – Rank 58
There’s a relatively new look field at this seasons Open Sud de France with the most notable absentee being reigning six time finalist Richard Gasquet. However, defending champion and home town hero Lucas Pouille will be in attendance and holds the number one seed after his dazzling run at the Australian Open. He’s been given a really favourable draw in the top half with no one standing out to us as a massive danger (as long as he’s on his game). The bottom half is where all the main dangers lie in our opinion. You’ve got the super talented high seeds in David Goffin and Denis Shapovalov, as well as the seriously dangerous floaters in Tomas Berdych and Benoit Paire. In our opinion, the value lies in the weaker top half of the draw, where we’ll be backing in the in-form Lucas Pouille to defend his title.
ATP Sofia (Bulgaria)
The Sofia Open made its ATP Tour debut in 2016 and is played on hard court (indoor) at Bulgaria’s leading sports and entertainment venue labelled Arena Armeec Sofia. In 2018 the Sofia Open was won by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Mirza Basic (def Marius Copil 7-6, 6-7, 6-4).
Top Seeds
(1) Karen Khachanov (RUS) – Rank 11
(2) Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) – Rank 12
(3) Daniil Medvedev (RUS) – Rank 16
(4) Roberto Bautista Agut (SPA) – Rank 18
(5) Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) – Rank 22
(6) Fernando Verdasco (SPA) – Rank 26
(7) Gael Monfils (FRA) – Rank 33
(8) Andreas Seppi (ITA) – Rank 37
The Sofia Open is arguably the most prestigious of the three ATP tournaments taking place this week and has certainly attracted the most top end talent. Once again, there’s a clear favourable side of the draw with the bottom half looking a lot easier to progress through than the top. In the stacked top half we’ve got the obvious threat of number one seed Karen Khachanov, as well as the always competitive Spanish duo of Fernando Verdasco and Roberto Bautista Agut, who are both coming off successful Australian Open events. Then you’ve got the dangerous floaters of Stan Wawrinka and last year’s finalist Marius Copil. There’s just too much talent there to find any value in our opinion. From the bottom half we really like the draw of Stefanos Tsitsipas. The only main threat to the young Greek Freak is another young gun in Daniil Medvedev. Both come into this in really good form and will likely cruise to the semi-final where they’ll meet. Of the two, we like Tsitsipas a touch more and are more than happy to take on the odds currently available.
Stefanos Tsitsipas Win
$5.50
