The ATP Tour is well and truly heating up this month, with consecutive Masters 1000 events ahead of the US Open in a fortnight’s time. Upsets abounded in Toronto last week where Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and all but one of the top 10 seeds exited prior to the quarter-finals, with Jannik Sinner the lone survivor and eventual titlist.
Will we see more of the same in at the Cincinnati Masters this week or will order be restored in the tennis world? Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic play in the same draw again for the first time since their Wimbledon epic—could we get a tantalising re-match a week before the US Open?
We break down the answers to these questions and more looking at the latest odds from bookmaker William Hill to outline the best bets ahead of the Cincinnati Masters this week.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: August 13th, 2:30 P.M. (GMT)
The outright betting odds say what many tennis fans having been thinking this year—it’s almost impossible to separate Djokovic and Alcaraz. The pair are joint favourites at bookmaker William Hill with a payout of 2.75 to win the tournament, while Daniil Medvedev comes in at third paying 6.50. Behind these three, last week’s champion Jannik Sinner sits in fourth at 13.00 before Stefanos Tsitsipas rounds out the top five favourites with odds of 19.00.
To answer the question of whether or not last week’s upsets will continue, we say no, they won’t. Carlos Alcaraz has only lost four times this year and every time he has, the Spaniard has bounced back strong. His pedigree and coaching are too elite to flop in consecutive tournaments, so we can expect a focused, determined world No. 1 to show up in Cincinnati, who will take some stopping.
Novak Djokovic lurks on the other side of the draw, but feels like less of strong betting option. The Serbian is more and more focused on Grand Slams at this point in his career, and it feels as though he’ll be very much treating Cincinnati as a glorified practice session, with all eyes on the US Open in later August.
As a result, we suggest betting on Carlos Alcaraz to win outright. He’ll likely play Tommy Paul—a player who will be very unlikely to beat him twice in a row—then Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas, two men he holds favourable head-to-heads against. In the final, we say it’ll be Daniil Medvedev, and we all know how that’s gone for the Russian in recent matches.
