Paris Olympics Tennis Day 9 Pick 2024 (Sunday 4th August)

So it was Qinwen Zheng who picked up the Gold Medal with a relatively routine win over Donna Vekic and it will be interesting to see how her career develops from here.

A Runner Up at the Australian Open, it has not been the best few months for Zheng but the victory in Paris, which includes the upset of Iga Swiatek, will certainly have her feeling very positive about her game.

However, like many of the recent Grand Slam events, expect to see a lot of surprising results throughout the US Open when that tournament begins later this month and negotiating the draw will be a tough task for every player in the event.

Before attention fully turns to the hard court season, the men's Gold Medal match is set to be played on Sunday and it is between two players who will be favourites to win the next Grand Slam.

There is a feeling this could be a real changing of the guard moment in the sport, but Novak Djokovic will have a lot to say about that as the Paris Olympics are concluded for the tennis players who have been taking part.

Carlos Alcaraz - 3.5 games v Novak Djokovic: No one can forget the way Carlos Alcaraz cramped up after taking the second set against Novak Djokovic in the French Open Semi Final in 2023- all of the momentum was with him at that time, but the young Spaniard was perhaps a bit too inexperienced and amped up in facing arguably the best player of all time and feeling like he was going to be in a position to win that match.

The character of Carlos Alcaraz cannot be questioned though and a month later he was beating Novak Djokovic in the Final at Wimbledon in a five set classic.

However, Novak Djokovic has not won 24 Grand Slam titles for no reason and got the better of Carlos Alcaraz in the next two meetings in 2023.

Things seem to have swung back in favour of Alcaraz though and the dismantling straight sets win over Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon Final last month makes the Spaniard the favourite to win the Gold Medal. He added the Wimbledon title to a maiden French Open title won in June and Carlos Alcaraz has to be considered the player to beat at the US Open which begins later this month.

He crushed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Semi Final and there remain some doubts about the Novak Djokovic knee, which forced the former World Number 1 to change his tactics and approach to a match with Alcaraz in the Wimbledon Final. Shortening the points, or at least trying to shorten the points, is still possible on a grass court, but that is much more difficult on the clay and Carlos Alcaraz will certainly feel he can outlast Djokovic if the knee is still causing problems.

Novak Djokovic is definitely feeling some kind of impact on his service performance with this lingering issue and that is a concern when facing someone like Carlos Alcaraz who will look to put the pressure on immediately. The Serb was broken five times by Alcaraz in the Wimbledon Final, while Djokovic has dropped serve at least twice in three of his last four matches in this tournament.

Both Stefanos Tsitsipas and Lorenzo Musetti will know they missed opportunities to really put Novak Djokovic under pressure, but Carlos Alcaraz may have a different mindset compared with those players. Unlike them, Alcaraz knows he has beaten Novak Djokovic on the biggest stages and the defending French Open Champion is going to be tough to knock off here.

It certainly helps Carlos Alcaraz that he is making the most out of his serve, even on the clay, and that may keep Novak Djokovic under some pressure.

You can never rule out Novak Djokovic and the motivation is going to be at a super high level with this being his last chance to win Olympic Gold and effectively win everything you can on the tennis courts. It may even be argued that winning this Medal would have felt more important than winning an eighth Wimbledon title, but motivation alone is not going to get this done and it would be unwise to underestimate Carlos Alcaraz and his own ambitions considering what he has already achieved in his very young career.

That victory at Wimbledon last month will certainly help the mental edge lean towards Carlos Alcaraz and he can underline his place as the top men's player on the Tour by taking a third big title in succession with another strong victory over a perhaps less than 100% Novak Djokovic.

MY PICK: Carlos Alcaraz - 3.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet Victor (2 Units)

Paris Olympics Update: 8-10, - 6.76 Units (36 Units Staked, - 18.78% Yield)

Paris Olympics Tennis Day 8 Picks 2024 (Saturday 3rd August)

The men's Gold Medal match is the one that the fans would have all hoped for at the Paris Olympic Games, but the Novak Djokovic vs Carlos Alcaraz hype will just have to slow down for a while.

Iga Swiatek has won the Bronze Medal, but the women's Gold Medal match is set for Saturday and we are going to have another surprising winner regardless of the outcome. This has been a feature of women's tennis in recent years, while especially being the case at the recent Olympic Games, and the entire draw will feel there is an opportunity to win a big title when they head to New York City for the US Open.

Qinwen Zheng - 3.5 games v Donna Vekic: Winning a Grand Slam remains the ultimate prize for any player on the Tour, but the opportunity to win a Gold Medal is one that many would like to have.

It is Qinwen Zheng and Donna Vekic who have that chance on Saturday having made their way through the Paris Olympics draw and both have been playing with plenty of confidence over the last month.

Last month Donna Vekic reached the Semi Final at Wimbledon before losing a tough battle against Jasmine Paolini, but all credit has to be given to the Croatian for the performances so far this week. The clay courts are the weakest surface on which Vekic will perform and she had a losing record on the surface for the second season in a row prior to her run in Paris.

Donna Vekic did reach the Third Round at the French Open, but had only won one match in her three tournaments in Stuttgart, Madrid and Rome and she would have been a big price to reach the Gold Medal match at this event.

Qinwen Zheng also had a disappointing run at the French Open, but she won a clay court title in Palermo in July between Wimbledon and the Olympic Games. This means she has a 22-8 record on the clay over the last two seasons before arriving in Paris and winning five matches here, including the upset of Iga Swiatek in the Semi Final.

There have been some rough moments for both players- Zheng was very close to losing to Emma Navarro and Angelique Kerber, while Donna Vekic was incredibly fortunate to beat Marta Kostyuk in the Quarter Final. Those will not be a major concern going into the Gold Medal match, especially with a day of rest for the players between the Semi Final and this one.

Out of the two players, Qinwen Zheng has the clay court pedigree to take home the Gold Medal, while she also went one better than Donna Vekic as the Australian Open Finalist earlier this season before losing to Aryna Sabalenka. That should help in trying to handle the nerves and the pressure of the occasion, while the Zheng serve has perhaps been operating in a stronger fashion than the Croatian's.

This could make the difference in the Gold Medal match and Qinwen Zheng can back up the most recent meeting between the players which was won in three sets on a hard court in October 2023. On the clay, you would have to favour Qinwen Zheng a little bit more and she can find a way to win the match and cover this mark, especially with Donna Vekic perhaps not as accustomed to the conditions in the middle of the day as her opponent.

MY PICKS: Qinwen Zheng - 3.5 Games @ 1.87 Bet Victor (2 Units)

Paris Olympics Update: 7-10, - 8.50 Units (34 Units Staked, - 25% Yield)

Olympic Tennis Day 9 Picks 2021 (August 1st)

The Tokyo Olympics are concluded for the Tennis tournament on Sunday with the Men's Gold Medal match and I do think it has the potential of being a good one.

Karen Khachanov + 3.5 games v Alexander Zverev: The Gold Medal has been decided in the Women's event and the Bronze Medal in both the Women's and Men's event was also played on Saturday. That leaves the Sunday clear for the Men's Gold Medal match between Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov as they look to secure the biggest title of their careers which could spark more to come at Grand Slam level.

The challenge in the Grand Slams is different in the best of five set format, but this Gold Medal match has changed format back into the best of the three set format. That should aid both Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov, although the pressure of winning a major title is something they will be relatively unfamiliar with.

Alexander Zverev has experienced playing in a US Open Final and that should help him massively in the Gold Medal match. He did blow a strong opportunity to win that Slam last year, but the German is coming off a confidence boosting win over the World Number 1 and he is going to head into the Final as a significant favourite.

The tournament has been a really strong one for Alexander Zverev and that will further the belief in the player that he can win this Gold Medal and perhaps use it to spark further success on the Tour. Alexander Zverev's serve is a big weapon, but the conditions have suited him in Tokyo when it comes to the return and that makes him very dangerous.

However, I don't think you can draw a line through the chances of Karen Khachanov who had a very strong win in the Semi Final and looks to be at home in the conditions himself. He has spent longer on the court than Alexander Zverev, but Karen Khachanov has had a couple of days off and the comfortable win in the Semi Final will have given him ample time to refresh and get ready for the biggest match of his career.

Like Zverev, Karen Khachanov has been really strong behind his serve and I think that gives him a chance of the upset. The Russian has also been impressive on the return and his head to head with Alexander Zverev will certainly offer further encouragement.

It has been a couple of years since these players last met on the professional Tour, but Karen Khachanov has won the last two matches to pull himself back to 2-2 against Alexander Zverev. Both those wins have come on a faster hard court than the one that they will be playing on in Tokyo, but they are two wins that will give Karen Khachanov a lot of belief in his ability to knock off the favourite.

Over their three previous hard court matches, Karen Khachanov has held in 88% of service games played against Alexander Zverev compared with the 64% mark of the latter. Karen Khachanov has dominated the break points created in the last two matches between the pair and I do think the Russian can be backed with a start to at least keep this one close.

I think he can take a set which would give him the chance of the cover and Karen Khachanov is worth siding with in this Gold Medal match before all the players move across to North America for preparation towards the US Open.

MY PICKS: Karen Khachanov + 3.5 Games @ 1.85 Bet Victor (2 Units)

Olympic Game: 25-18, + 4.06 Units (88 Units Staked, + 4.61% Yield)

Olympic Tennis Day 8 Picks 2021 (July 31st)

The Tokyo Olympics are down to the Medal matches for those taking part in the Tennis event and the majority of the players involved have likely began their move across to North America where the build up to the US Open has begun.

Most won't likely take part in events listed to begin over the next few days, but Rafael Nadal is back as he travels to Washington for the first time.

Those are the 'weakest' events left before the run to the US Open with back to back Masters events in Canada and Cincinnati played back to back in the middle of August. We should begin to get some insight into how the US Open may shake out, but for now the focus is on the Olympics and handing out the Medals across the next two days.

Elena Rybakina - 1.5 games v Elina Svitolina: The Bronze Medal match in the Women's Tennis Olympic tournament will be played before the Gold Medal match and it is a strange situation for the players competing. Every other tournament they would have played would have been over as soon as the Semi Final match points went against them, but Elena Rybakina and Elina Svitolina have to return to the court two days after those defeats to play this Bronze Medal match.

The mindset can be quite difficult to determine when you think of the normality of the situation for the players off a defeat. Elena Rybakina has to be feeling the Semi Final loss a little more than Elina Svitolina because the Kazakhstan player may believe that one or two points cost her the match in a very close encounter. The Elina Svitolina defeat was much more straight-forward and I do wonder if the early exploits in the tournament have caught up with a player who may not have spent as much time on the court as she would have liked in the lead up to the Olympic Games.

Elina Svitolina has only recently married Gael Monfils and that may have taken her focus from the tennis so the run in Tokyo is something of a surprise. Even more so when you think of the inconsistent performances Svitolina has produced over the last twelve months and she has not really played at a very high level in the tournament, but has managed to get through to the Bronze Medal match by playing the big points better than her opponents have been able to do.

I do think she is going to have to improve dramatically from the Semi Final level if she is going to beat Elena Rybakina who had breezed through her first four matches before losing a break advantage in the final set of her Semi Final defeat to Belinda Bencic. The Rybakina serve has been a big weapon for her throughout this tournament and she has found a consistency on the return of serve which may just give the younger player an edge as she looks to Medal.

Elina Svitolina's serve is much more erratic and I do think it is a vulnerable part of her game which has prevented her kicking on and winning a Grand Slam. While she has won four matches here, the Ukrainian has not really been dominant on the return of serve either and I do think Elena Rybakina will get the better of her as long as the almost three hour Semi Final has not taken too much from her mentally and emotionally.

Before that match, Elena Rybakina has not really spent a lot of time on the court compared with Elina Svitolina who had multiple matches being played that lasted more than two hours on the court. She looked a little drained in the Semi Final defeat to Marketa Vondrousova and Elena Rybakina beat Elina Svitolina last month on a grass court when her serve was the key difference.

The hard court numbers produced by both players have been very similar over the last twelve months, but Elena Rybakina has been performing at a much better level in this tournament and I think she can conclude it with a Bronze Medal.

Marketa Vondrousova - 1.5 games v Belinda Bencic: Over the last three years it has become clear that there isn't a dominant player on the WTA Tour and that has meant the big tournaments have been much more open for all who take part. It has led to a number of first time Grand Slam Champions and the Olympic Games five years ago saw Monica Puig win a Gold Medal.

Naomi Osaka was the favourite to win the Gold Medal this time around along with World Number 1 Ashleigh Barty, but both exited the tournament relatively early. Even then, you would be hard pressed to find too many people who would have tipped up Marketa Vondrousova versus Belinda Bencic in the Gold Medal match and this is easily going to be the biggest tournament won by either of these players.

It does mean there will be a new kind of pressure to deal with, but Marketa Vondrousova may be slightly better placed to deal with that. The Czech youngster reached the French Open Final in 2019 and so will know what it takes to perform in an environment like this one which may be a slight edge over Belinda Bencic who has not been beyond the Fourth Round at three of the four Grand Slams played and her best effort being one Semi Final run at the US Open a little under two years ago.

There is little doubt that Marketa Vondrousova has played the stronger tennis to this point of the tournament too after a difficult opening match. She has taken full advantage of using a Protected Ranking to enter the draw when her current World Ranking would not have been good enough to represent a loaded Czech Republic team, and Marketa Vondrousova's numbers have seen her consistently out-perform Belinda Bencic.

The Swiss player came through an incredibly tough Semi Final against Elena Rybakina, but Belinda Bencic was a little fortunate on the day having produced fewer break points than her opponent. It was a really long match too and you do have to wonder if that has sapped some of the energy she is going to need to challenge Marketa Vondrousova who has won their sole previous match, also on a hard court.

It was a victory in a tough three setter, but Marketa Vondrousova earned three times as many break points as Belinda Bencic and she has won more than 50% of return points in each of her last four matches. That is incredibly dangerous for Belinda Bencic who gave up 16 break points in her Semi Final win over Elena Rybakina and who has been struggling to earn easy service games in her last three matches.

Belinda Bencic is capable in her return game, but it has been a relative weakness in her performances on the hard courts in recent seasons. I think that will be the case in this Gold Medal match and I think Marketa Vondrousova will have enough to come through with the victory and the cover of this handicap mark.

Pablo Carreno Busta + 5.5 games v Novak Djokovic: In normal circumstances, Novak Djokovic will be a player who doesn't spend a lot of time playing Doubles Tennis alongside his Singles commitments and certainly not at a major event. However, a proud Serb wanted to represent his nation to the fullest of his abilities at the Olympic Games and that has meant Novak Djokovic took part in the Mixed Doubles as well as the Singles tournament in Tokyo.

Some of that may have caught up with him as he was beaten in three sets in the Semi Final of the Singles tournament and later followed up with a straight sets defeat in the Mixed Doubles.

The dream of a Golden Slam have thus ended in the defeat to Alexander Zverev and now Novak Djokovic will instead be contesting the Bronze Medal match for the third time. He won that Medal in 2008 and was then beaten to finish without a Medal in London in 2012, while Novak Djokovic will also be dealing with the disappointment of losing his opportunity to win a Gold Medal.

It may not be his last chance to do that, but in three years time you would expect Novak Djokovic to not be as strong as he is right now. With the best opportunity now behind him, I do wonder what kind of motivation Novak Djokovic can have in this Bronze Medal match after looking completely exhausted by the end of his match with Alexander Zverev.

That has to be encouraging for Pablo Carreno Busta after the Spaniard was convincingly beaten in the first Semi Final against Karen Khachanov despite going into the match as the favourite. Winning a Medal would be a major achievement for Carreno Busta so I expect him to come out with a little more energy than Novak Djokovic, while Pablo Carreno Busta has to think about trying to extend the rallies and see whether a tired World Number 1 can really find the extra energy needed to win a Medal that he would not have been targeting before the tournament began.

Novak Djokovic is clearly the better hard court player and he has had the better tournament all around compared with Pablo Carreno Busta. The latter may need something like a repeat of their famous match at the US Open last year when Novak Djokovic was Defaulted after knocking a ball to the back of the court which hit a Line Judge.

However, I do think Novak Djokovic may be more focused on the other Bronze Medal match he is competing in on Saturday. Winning in the Mixed Doubles as a part of a team will be more appealing to a player that has a Singles Bronze Medal at home already and that should give Pablo Carreno Busta a chance for the upset.

Overall it certainly makes it feel like the underdog can keep this close with the amount of games being given to him. Novak Djokovic may still dig in and show his class in the victory, but I can see him coasting at times to preserve some energy and it may give Pablo Carreno Busta an opportunity to at least keep things close on the scoreboard.

MY PICKS: Elena Rybakina - 1.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet Victor (2 Units)

Marketa Vondrousova - 1.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)

Pablo Carreno Busta - 5.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (2 Units)

Olympic Games: 23-17, + 2.96 Units (82 Units Staked, + 3.61% Yield)