After a decent start to the clay court season, the decision had been made to miss the Madrid Masters and resume Tennis Picks at the Rome Masters in the last big event before the French Open.
There have already been some upsets in the early days at this tournament, but Jannik Sinner will be heading to Paris as the player to beat on the Men's side of the draw.
We could have another wide open second Grand Slam as far as the WTA players are concerned, but this is the last chance to lay down a marker for Paris with some big names still fighting through the draw.
The season totals have been updated below and there are two selections from the Sunday tennis in the Italian capital.
Iga Swiatek - 6.5 games v Elisabetta Cocciaretto: The first point you have to make is that the home player is not going to lose this match to Iga Swiatek having won a single game, as was the case right here in Rome last year. That was a devastating Second Round performance from the multiple time French Open Champion, but Elisabetta Cocciaretto may be more prepared by what she is going to be facing and will be looking to use the home crowd to push her forward.
There has not been a lot of positive clay court form to call upon, but a couple of wins in the main draw in Rome will have given Cocciaretto some belief, even if she is well aware that this is a big step upwards in terms of level of opponent.
Iga Swiatek will go into the French Open as one of the favourites, but she will be looking for a strong run in Rome after some inconsistent results of her own during this portion of the Tour.
Three wins and two losses on the clay courts may mean Iga Swiatek is in danger of heading to Paris a little undercooked, although the numbers have been solid and some of her main rivals at the next Grand Slam have also had their issues.
The serve is always a strong part of the Iga Swiatek game- if she is serving well, the rest of her tennis seems to flow and the numbers in the five clay court matches this season have been decent enough. The World Number 3 has also been having strong success on her return in the limited sample of matches played and Iga Swiatek may still have enough to cover this spread, even if it is not expected to be as one-sided as when these two players met last year.
Elisabetta Cocciaretto did take a set from Jessica Pegula in Charleston earlier this year, but this is a big step up compared with recent level of opponents and that should play out on the scoreboard in favour of the higher Ranked player.
Alexander Zverev - 3.5 games v Alexander Blockx: He started the season having to Qualify for the Australian Open, but there is every chance that youngster Alexander Blockx will be Seeded when Wimbledon rolls around at the end of June.
Even as recently as the Monte Carlo Masters, Blockx was playing in the Qualifiers, but his run to the Madrid Masters Semi Final means the Belgian has pushed his way into World Number 36.
That run was ended by Alexander Zverev, who was eventually beaten by Jannik Sinner, and it is going to be tough for the younger player to change the scoreline.
Alexander Blockx does have a serve that can keep him in matches, but the clay courts are always tougher to impose that shot alone and in Madrid it was Alexander Zverev who had the bigger serve by some margin.
The experience is also an edge and Alexander Zverev has long been very comfortable on the clay courts and two of the three defeats on the surface this year have been against the World Number 1.
While the numbers are impressive, there is also a feeling that Alexander Zverev has room for improvement and he will be looking to peak at the French Open beginning at the end of the month and not at this stage of the clay court season. He will be expecting a bit more out of the serve and will feel there is more pressure he can exert on the return, but Zverev did more than enough to get the better of Alexander Blockx at the last tournament and can frank that form.
Respect has to be given to Alexander Blockx for the confidence he would have earned from some of the upsets produced during the clay court season, but he may not have had enough time to make the adjustments for this match up.
MY PICKS: Iga Swiatek - 6.5 Games @ 1.85 William Hill (1 Unit)
Alexander Zverev - 3.5 Games @ 1.72 William Hill (1 Unit)
Season 2026: 97-82, + 10.54 Units (244 Units Staked, + 4.32% Yield)
No comments:
Post a Comment