A busy February of tennis spills over into March this week with three more ATP events being played out over the next six days. In Acapulco, Carlos Alcaraz will head to the Mexican Open in an attempt to carry on the strong legacy of Spanish men winning in Mexico.
The young Spaniard will have stiff competition this week, however, with a strong draw named in this ATP 500. World No. 4 Casper Ruud will be seeking his first title of the year, while a strong American contingent will be present alongside last week’s titlist Cameron Norrie. We break down the best bets to make on the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC this week with odds from bookmaker bet365.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: February 27th, 9:00 P.M. (GMT)
Looking at the outright winner odds, Carlos Alcaraz leads the pack with odds of 3.60. However, a host of players are hot on his heels with six men on odds of 5.00 to 9.00. Newly minted World No. 5 and recent Delray Beach Open champion Taylor Fritz is the second favourite at 5.00 with the returning Matteo Berrettini just behind him at 6.00. Holger Rune, Casper Ruud, Cameron Norrie and Tommy Paul make up the rest of the challengers with Francis Tiafoe also lurking as a threat at 19.00.
Betting on the Mexican Open 2023 is a fascinating prospect considering the tennis we saw over the weekend. Recent Buenos Aires champion and World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz was comfortably leading Cameron Norrie by a set and 3-1, 0-30, in the Rio Open final on Sunday before he tweaked a hamstring. While the match was played to completion with Norrie winning 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, Alcaraz clearly struggled with his movement for the final hour of the match.
Many expected Alcaraz to withdraw from the Mexican Open and his continued inclusion remains something of a surprise. Given this injury cloud, betting on the favourite seems a risky prospect. Instead, this is an opportunity to back another player with higher odds assuming that the draw will open up with Alcaraz not at his best.
The three men most likely to make a deep run here are Cameron Norrie, Taylor Fritz and Francis Tiafoe. All three have a healthy return on an outright tournament winner bet with odds between 5.00 and 19.00. Cameron Norrie is the obvious choice—having made the final of Buenos Aires and winning Rio in the past fortnight, he’s in hot form.
Taylor Fritz and Francis Tiafoe are also great bets as well. Fritz is at a career high World No. 5 and comes into Acapulco off the back of yet another title last week. He’s 11-3 for the year and was impressive in the United Cup last month taking out three Top 20 players to help USA win. Tiafoe, on the other hand, is 8-2 for the year. He won all five of his United Cup matches in January before making the Round of 32 at the Australian Open and quarterfinals in Dallas.
