Andy Schooler looks at the first-round matches at the Madrid Open and offers up his best bets.
Tennis betting tips: Madrid Open round one
1pt Raphael Collignon to beat Matteo Berrettini at evens (BoyleSports)
1pt Vit Kopriva to beat Zhizhen Zhang at 19/20 (betway)
Raphael Collignon v Matteo Berrettini
Collignon is one of the ATP Tour’s big improvers over the past year.
He beat the likes of Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second half of last season and started this year by defeating Grigor Dimitrov en route to the quarter-finals in Brisbane.
The Belgian was rather unlucky at the Australian Open when he was pushing seed Lorenzo Musetti only for his body to fail him in the heat, but he’s since got back into the winning groove with 16 of his last 19 matches heading into Madrid won.
Admittedly, several of those have come on the Challenger Tour but he was very impressive when winning the recent tournament in Monza – Collignon didn’t lose a set and dropped serve just once all week.
If he serves like that again here, he’ll be a hard nut to crack and the altitude conditions should aid him on that front, making the ball fly through the air that bit faster.
Berrettini could well be the next scalp for Collignon to claim.
While he caught the eye with his ‘double bagel’ dismissal of Daniil Medvedev in Monte Carlo, you have to question the opponent in such scenarios and it was notable that the following day Berrettini was brushed aside by Joao Fonseca.
Collignon isn’t in that class but he has the power to live with Berrettini in the rallies and I believe the rising star can edge this one.
Zhizhen Zhang v Vit Kopriva
Zhang is a former quarter-finalist in Madrid but he’s not in the sort of form take took him to the last eight in 2023.
The Chinese is still working his way back from long-term injury and the fact is that’s been something of a struggle for him - he’s lost six of his last seven matches.
Kopriva has earned some good results so far in 2026, particularly on clay.
He was a semi-finalist in the slower conditions of Rio but I feel it’s significant that last week in Munich – another altitude venue – he reached the last eight, beating Luciano Darderi along the way.
While conditions aren’t exactly the same, playing in Munich should be advantageous for Kopriva, who should be used to the ball ‘flying’ that bit more. For what it’s worth, Zhang also played in Munich but lost in round one to Darderi.
The Chinese has the greater power here but if Kopriva is able to get into his return games – and he’s a strong returner, winning 29% of return games on clay this season - then I can see him winning the baseline battle.
Posted at 18:05 BST on 21/04/26
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