The European clay court season kicked off with a bang last week. An excellent week of tennis at the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 saw Andrey Rublev grab the bull by the horns and win his first title at this level through an impressive comeback win over Holger Rune. Despite the intensity over the weekend, there’s little respite as the biggest names in tennis head to a series of smaller tournaments this week ahead of the next clay Masters 1000 in Madrid.
One of those tournaments is the Barcelona Open, an ATP 500 played on clay. This event boasts a whole host of Top 10 stars in the draw, many of which exited early at Monte Carlo or did not play. With a second chance for clay court momentum on the road to Roland Garros, who will excel this week in Barcelona?
Bookmaker bet365 has all the latest odds as we break down the best bets to make on the ATP 500 Barcelona Open.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 17th, 2:00 A.M. (GMT)
Leading the betting odds in Barcelona is defending champion Carlos Alcaraz. The Spanish teen opted to skip Monte Carlo after a heavy schedule in the weeks leading up to European clay but is back and paying 1.83 to win here in Spain. Trailing him is his nemesis in 2023, Jannik Sinner, who is well back at 5.00. With even longer odds, the next two favourites are Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud at 9.00 and 11.00 before Karen Khachanov rounds out the top five favourites in the odds at 26.00.
Several questions exist ahead of Barcelona. First, will this be a two horse race? Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have been the form players on the ATP Tour in recent tournaments. Both players made the semi-finals or better in each of the Sunshine Double Masters with Alcaraz winning Indian Wells and Sinner making the final of Miami. The pair met twice on the American hard court, splitting their two semi-final encounters. With these two headlining in Barcelona and in opposite sides of the draw, is it destined to be an Alcaraz vs. Sinner final?
Not so fast, we say. Both have played a significant amount of tennis the past six weeks and that has to catch up to them eventually. With Madrid, Rome and then Roland Garros bearing down on them, surely the mental load of such a high volume of matches will take its toll. Add to this the fact that Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud are due for a breakthrough in 2023 on clay and it feels naïve to just write this tournament off as the Alcaraz vs. Sinner show.
Instead, a bet on Stefanos Tsitsipas is a strong move. The Greek has not been playing his best tennis within the last month and has spoken several times in the media about an arm injury that he is carrying. However, the 24-year-old did not spend much time on court in Monte Carlo with a walkover followed by a straight sets win then a quick quarterfinal exit. Given his clay court caliber and added rest for the arm injury, this feels like the moment that he’ll play himself back into form ahead of Roland Garros.
