The Week just gone was an amazing one for Australia’s own Alex De Minaur. The young star become just the third player in recorded history to win a tournament without facing a single break point. It’s truly a remarkable feat, especially when you consider his serve isn’t seen as his biggest weapon.
We now turn our attention to this week’s tournaments, which is headlined by the Citi Open. As always, we preview the event and provide our best betting tips. Good luck to everyone following!
ATP Washington Open Betting Tips
The Washington Open (A.K.A Citi Open) is an annual tennis tournament held at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, Washington DC, USA. It’s one of 13 ATP 500 events in the world and is played on outdoor hard courts.
The most successful player in the tournament’s history is Andre Agassi with five men’s singles titles (1990-1999), while the most successful current player is Juan Martin del Potro with three titles (2008-2013). Alexander Zverev has won the last two times it’s been held, defeating both Kevin Anderson (2017) and Alex De Minaur (2018) in straight sets.
2019 Seeds
This year there are 16 seeds from a 48-strong field. All 16 seeded players get a bye in Round 1 and will play their first match in Round 2. Here are the seeds at this year’s Citi Open:
(1) Stefanos Tsitsipas (2) Karen Khachanov
(3) Daniil Medvedev (4) Kevin Anderson
(5) John Isner (6) Marin Cilic
(7) David Goffin (8) Milos Raonic
(9) Felix Auger-Aliassime (10) Benoit Paire
(11) Gilles Simon (12) Alex De Minaur
(13) Kyle Edmund (14) Jan-Lennard Struff
(15) Pierre-Hugues Herbert (16) Frances Tiafoe
Contenders
It’s a fairly open field at the Citi Open this year with so many players capable of contending for the title if they find their best form. There may not be any of the big three competing, but there are still 15 of the world’s top 40 ranked players taking to the courts.
The number seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, will start as the favourite at around $8. He’s certainly capable of winning the title here on his day, but all recent form suggests he’s and easy fade this week.
You then get out to the trio of big servers in Kevin Anderson ($8.40), John Isner ($8.40) and Milos Raonic ($8.60). Anderson was the runner-up in 2017, while Isner is a three-time runner up (‘07, ‘13, ‘15). Raonic is the only former winner in the field, having lifted the trophy in 2014.
Daniil Medvedev ($8.20) is the third seed here and has shown huge ability in the past, although his recent form isn’t great, which is a similar story to fellow Russian in Karen Khachanov ($11).
Two of the ATP Tour’s young guns in Felix Auger-Aliassime ($11) and Alex De Minaur ($12.50) are also in the mix. The latter is obviously the form man of the two, having won the title in Atlanta in emphatic fashion on the weekend.
Prediction
As mentioned above, it’s a really open field in Washington this week, which should make for an excellent tournament. The openness of the field allows us to pick a couple of contenders and still get great value for money, which is exactly what we’re going to be doing. It’s often hard for players, especially young ones, to back up a title-winning week with another great performance, but the way Alex De Minaur played in Atlanta has forced our hand. He’s our on top pick this week in hope that he can keep the ball rolling and produce another great week. We’ll also be taking the odds on Stefanos Tsitsipas. Being the number one seed, the Greek gets a fantastic draw and should be able to progress deep into the tournament as long as he finds something close to his best form.
Also Backing: Stefanos Tsitsipas $8
