ATP Tour action returns on Wednesday as the Asian swing gets under way in China. Andy Schooler picks out his best bets for Chengdu and Hangzhou.
Tennis betting tips: ATP Tour
1pt e.w. Botic van de Zandschulp in the Chengdu Open at 10/1 (General)
0.5pt e.w. Martin Damm in the Chengdu Open at 50/1 (General)
0.5pt e.w. Aleksandar Vukic in the AITO Hangzhou Open at 175/1 (Sky Bet, Paddy Power, Betfair)
0.5pt e.w. Michael Zheng in the AITO Hangzhou Open at 40/1 (Sky Bet, Paddy Power, Betfair)
Chengdu Open
- Chengdu, China (outdoor hard)
A medium-fast Laykold court, alongside 500m of altitude, mean conditions in Chengdu are among the fastest on the ATP Tour.
That explains why Valentin Vacherot and Hubert Hurkacz are among the favourites here, although it’s worth noting that the pair are in the same quarter of the draw.
Vacherot, still finding his feet after injury forced him to miss the grasscourt season, has the defence of his Shanghai Masters title looming – and knows a big rankings drop is coming if he doesn’t go deep there.
He may, therefore, have one eye on that event, coming up in a couple of weeks’ time. He’s also had to hot-foot it from Finland where he was playing indoors in the Davis Cup at the weekend.
Hurkacz should be better prepared but it’s more than two years since he won an ATP-level title. An opener against last season’s semi-finalist Aleksandr Shevchenko is not ideal but it’s his potential second-round foe I’m prepared to take a punt on.
MARTIN DAMM enjoyed a decent North American hardcourt swing, most notably beating Daniil Medvedev in Winston-Salem.
He followed that up by pushing eventual semi-finalist Frances Tiafoe to a fifth set at the US Open, while earlier in the swing he took a set off Ben Shelton.
In short, form is pretty decent and one suspects he’ll be keen to keep things rolling as he heads into conditions which should suit.
Interestingly, Damm has won his only previous meeting with Hurkacz, which came earlier this season in Montpellier when the American held his serve throughout. He should be tough to break in Chengdu and, despite having landed in the toughest section of the draw, I think he’s worth a small punt at tasty odds of 50/1.
The bottom half is clearly the weaker of the two and so I want someone onside here and that man is BOTIC VAN DE ZANDSCHULP.
Since returning to the hardcourts at the start of August, the Dutchman has won 11 of his 15 matches.
The vanquished include Alex de Minaur at the US Open, plus Medvedev and Hurkacz in Montreal.
He gets a first-round bye here, meaning he’ll need only four wins to claim the title – or three to earn some place money. And, at 10/1, that’s an each-way bet certainly worth considering.
The opposition in the bottom half doesn’t look great.
Miomir Kecmanovic could be his first opponent but you have to go back before Wimbledon to find the last time he won back-to-back matches, something he’ll need to do in order to beat Van de Zandschulp.
Sebastian Baez should find it too quick here, while the only man seeded above Van de Zandschulp in the half is Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who hasn’t played since July due to a back injury.
Back Botic at 10s.
AITO Hangzhou Open
- Hangzhou, China (outdoor hard)
It tends to play slower in Hangzhou than Chengdu with medium-paced GreenSet courts in use and no significant altitude in play.
It does, however, look like the heat could be a real factor with temperatures forecast to reach as high as the mid-30s.
I’m certainly not convinced that the top two seeds, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, will be busting a gut to claim a 250 title here.
Medvedev did show some good signs at the recent US Open but he lost his second match here last season and I’m happy to swerve him given his short price of 11/8.
The same can be said of Rublev, who is just 2-5 during the Asian swing in the last two seasons, losing his opening match here 12 months ago.
He’s been aided by a decent-looking draw but, again, the price is very short.
I want to take Rublev on in the bottom half, although there is no outstanding candidate.
I am, however, attracted to a massive price which I just think is too big and that’s the 175/1 about ALEKSANDAR VUKIC.
It’s only a few weeks since the Australian was on an eight-match winning streak having captured the Granby Challenger on hardcourts.
That run ended at the hands of top-20 star Lorenzo Musetti, who was taken to a third set.
While that can be looked at as a positive, that scoreline also highlights an issue that, in reality, is likely to prove his undoing at some stage this week – he does tend to lose a lot of tight matches.
However, Vukic is a player who is a threat when his serve is on and a good week on that front could carry him far in a weak section of the draw.
Notably, Vukic has won nine of his last 10 tie-breaks which may well give him the confidence that he is able to win those close matches.
Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Fabian Marozsan are the seeds in the third quarter and neither strike fear into me, certainly not on this surface.
A small-stakes punt could be fun.
Up in the top half, I was drawn towards two players.
The first was Quentin Halys, whose form has been strong of late.
The Frenchman has won nine of his last 12 matches, winning the title on the clay of Kitzbuhel. Most recently, he came within two points of beating Alex Zverev at the US Open. The German went on to win the title.
If he brings that sort of form here, he should have a big say, although the fact that he was in Canada for Davis Cup at the weekend – playing indoors – is far from ideal.
Instead, I’m going to take a chance on a player who has been in decent nick of late – and one likely to be highly-motivated this week.
I’ve yet to mention the trend for the Asian players to raise their game in weeks such as these – I remember profiting from Zhizhen Zhang’s run to the final here two years ago.
However, I’ve looked at all the Chinese players in this week’s draws and am struggling to find a reason to back one of them given their lack of form.
American MICHAEL ZHENG does have Chinese roots though – he’ll be playing in his parents’ homeland – and should be keen to make a strong impression.
He’s been playing well in the past couple of months and arrives in Hangzhou with a recent 19-7 win-loss record. That run includes last-32 appearances in Cincinnati and at the US Open, as well as two Challenger semi-finals.
Zheng opens against home hope Bu Yunchaokete but he beat the Chinese at that US Open just a few weeks ago and I can certainly see him notching a few more wins this week.
Maybe that man Halys will prove his undoing at the quarter-final stage but at 40/1, I’m prepared to back Zheng to see how he performs.
Posted at 08:50 BST on 22/09/26
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