Andy Schooler previews the third round of the Miami Open with Jaume Munar backed to land another upset win.
Tennis betting tips: Miami Open matches
1pt Grigor Dimitrov to beat Karen Khachanov at 4/5 (betway)
0.75pts Jaume Munar to beat Gael Monfils at 33/20 (Unibet, BetMGM)
Jaume Munar v Gael Monfils
As he often does, Monfils has started the season well and has duly won plenty of plaudits.
Yet the less-spectacular Munar is also enjoying 2025 and this is arguably the best he’s ever played on a hardcourt.
A claycourter by trade, it’s interesting that – bar a trip to Rio - he’s focused exclusively on the hard surface this season and has been rewarded with some excellent wins.
Nuno Borges, Lorenzo Musetti and Ben Shelton were all beaten before arrival in Miami and in the last round he dismantled Daniil Medvedev, albeit the Russian said afterwards he had been suffering with some “physical problems”.
Monfils was coming through a final-set tie-break against Jiri Lehecka – his second successive three-set match in Miami – and you do wonder, at the age of 38, if he’ll be fully recovered.
Munar, who is yet to lose his serve at the tournament, should be able to get plenty of balls back here. To me, he looks a decent underdog bet at 33/20.
Grigor Dimitrov v Karen Khachanov
When fully fit, Dimitrov has played some decent tennis this season.
The problem is, he’s often struggled physically and has retired mid-match on multiple occasions.
However, things looked OK in his crushing opening win over wild card Federico Cina and he brings a 4-1 lead on the head-to-head into this contest.
Khachanov’s season is not going very well. He’s 5-6 so far in 2025 and I don’t think we should read too much into his victory over Nick Kyrgios in the last round given the amount of tennis the Australian has played of late.
The bookies have this closer than I do, offering Dimitrov at 4/5.
I’ll happily back that, although the recommendation would be to bet with a firm who offer you your money back if there’s a mid-match retirement.
Posted at 0954 GMT on 23/03/25
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