Tennis betting tips: Preview and best bets for ATP Tour action

Tennis betting tips: ATP Tour

2pts win Jiri Lehecka in the HSBC Championships at 15/2 (Coral, Ladbrokes)

0.5pt e.w. Adrian Mannarino in the HSBC Championships at 66/1 (Betfred)

1pt e.w. Hubert Hurkacz in the Terra Wortmann Open at 22/1 (General)

0.5pt e.w. Tallon Griekspoor in the Terra Wortmann Open at 66/1 (General)

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HSBC Championships

• Queen’s Club, London, England (outdoor grass)

The Queen’s Club tournament played a big part in attracting me to tennis – it was always on BBC in the 1980s and the very best players were always there, contending for the title.

Boris Becker, my tennis idol, won time after time in west London, while the likes of Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl and, later, Pete Sampras would also reign supreme.

Even when time moved on, Queen’s was still the go-to Wimbledon tune-up for nearly all the leading players. The exception was Roger Federer, who famously only played here once and never won a match.

His preference was to play in Halle, Germany, but he was very much the odd one out, with Queen’s still the tournament able to pull in the star names.

How times have changed.

While admittedly organisers have been hampered this year by Carlos Alcaraz’s injury, only one top-10 player will be at The Queen’s Club in 2026 and only three from the top 20.

Over in Halle (previewed below), the world number 15 isn’t even seeded.

Prize money for the pair of 500-level tournaments remains equal but the UK’s tax laws have helped take the shine off the country’s ‘second tournament’, reducing its appeal to players.

Those here won’t be too concerned about those absent though and the weaker field could certainly play into the hands of JIRI LEHECKA.

He was the runner-up here 12 months ago, losing to Alcaraz in the final, but he should certainly be relishing a return to these lawns having played so well here during that run.

It was one of those weeks – like the one we saw in Miami earlier this year – when his serve fired well in conditions which suit.

I wrote about Lehecka last week, suggesting he might be worth a try in Stuttgart. Frankly I was glad when he lost from match point up in the semi-finals (to Ben Shelton) as I’d have been gutted to miss out on a winner.

The Czech held serve all week in those quick conditions and it shouldn’t be a lot different in London where the organisers still produce fairly traditional grasscourts with a lower bounce than at Wimbledon, the ball skidding through that bit more.

Somewhat strangely, Lehecka is around the same price this week as he was last, despite the fact that there’s only one higher-ranked player in this field, Alex de Minaur. Last week there were three in the shape of Shelton, Taylor Fritz and Alexander Bublik.

Admittedly, Lehecka does have an awkward-looking first-round match against Kamil Majchrzak, a player who has just won the title in Den Bosch.

The Pole should buzzing after the best week of his career but he’s also got little experience of backing up so quickly, while the conditions in the Netherlands are considerably slower than they are here with breaks of serve much more common.

It looks like he’s going to arrive pretty late and regardless of when he does, Lehecka is going off as favourite.

As long as he survives that, Lehecka looks to have a fairly decent route through the bottom half. Former champion Marin Cilic is there but he’ll need to serve better than he did last week, while Tommy Paul is another with potential – he won here in 2024 and could face Lehecka in the semis.

However, I think at 15/2, the Czech is worth a bet to go one better than last season.

For a bigger price, let’s turn to the top half, which is led by De Minaur, who is yet to make the final here.

ADRIAN MANNARINO was another player I wrote about last week without actually backing so I was again relieved when he lost in the semis in Den Bosch.

However, he more than justified my positivity as he quickly put a miserable claycourt campaign behind him, taking to the grass like a duck to water.

That’s no surprise given the best days of the veteran’s career have nearly all come on slicker surfaces and I suspect conditions being faster here will suit the Frenchman even more.

He’ll be something of a throwback to those Becker and Edberg days, playing some serve-volley points, while he also uses the slice to great effect on the grass.

After playing well in the Netherlands and having landed in a fairly soft-looking quarter, Mannarino makes some appeal at 66/1.

The key will be surviving a first-round clash with third seed Jakub Mensik.

His big serve has the potential to cause problems on grass but that potential hasn’t turned into reality yet.

Mensik is just 6-8 lifetime at all levels on this surface and a look through his record shows that opponents have had plenty of success on return – he’s given up at least 10 break points in three of his last four grasscourt matches.

This will also be his first match on grass this season so if you at it from another angle, this is also a very tricky opener for the 20-year-old.

Terra Wortmann Open

• Halle, Germany (outdoor grass)

If you’ve read the Queen’s Club preview above, you’ll know this field is stacked.

Six of the world’s top 10 are in attendance, including newly crowned French Open champion Alex Zverev, playing for the first time since his victory at Roland Garros.

The German, who is yet to win a title on grass, is in the stronger top half of the draw, with two-time champion Alexander Bublik a possible quarter-final foe, and Stuttgart finalists Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz both lurking in the second quarter.

That’s a tough puzzle to solve and, frankly, I much prefer to head to the bottom half of the draw, even if that’s just to try to find the finalist via the each-way terms on offer.

This section is led by Felix Auger-Aliassime but he was poor in defeat to Majchrzak in Den Bosch last week and I’ll happily take on the Canadian, who is another never to win on this surface.

The other seeds here are Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli and Andrey Rublev – hopefully you can now see this half is considerably weaker.

None of these convince me on grass, although to be fair Rublev has twice reached the final here in Halle.

His problem this year is his first-round draw with pits him against HUBERT HURKACZ.

The Pole won here in 2022 and was runner-up in 2024.

I backed him on these pages on both occasions and can’t resist giving him another try in 2026.

OK, Hurkacz doesn’t have the same sort of form right now but his game is well suited to grass – the big serve winning lots of cheap points and the forehand capable of doing plenty of damage if ever the rallies get something approaching long.

Having played well in a five-set defeat to Frances Tiafoe at the French Open, he returned to the grass last week in Den Bosch but lost first up to Marton Fucsovics.

However, it was one of those grasscourt matches where the margin of victory was wafer-thin – Hurkacz did not lose his serve but was beaten in a final-set tie-break.

That’s not a disaster and in some ways will fuel confidence ahead of this match with an opponent he’s beaten four times out of six.

Hurkacz has held serve more than 90% of the time across those matches, none of which has been played on grass.

If he does claim Rublev’s scalp, the draw will really open up and so I can’t resist backing the Pole each way at 22/1.

Given I’m keen to take on the big guns in this half, I’m also going to throw another dart in the shape of TALLON GRIEKSPOOR.

The Dutchman was a selection last week but lost out to Zhizhen Zhang in Den Bosch. However, again it was a close contest – just the one break of serve in it.

As explained last week, Griekspoor’s serve is a decent weapon and should keep him honest in any matches in Halle.

Last summer he won the Wimbledon warm-up event in Mallorca, while he made the quarter-finals here in 2023 – the same year that he captured the title in Den Bosch.

In short, there’s decent grasscourt pedigree here and, having landed in a decent part of the draw, he’s worth a few beans at 66/1.

Posted at 19:10 BST on 14/06/26

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