As the Cincinnati Masters gets underway today and Monday night football is often entertaining, we have picked out our bets for the first Lucky 15 of the week. Only Roger Federer let us down yesterday as we ended the week strongly, capitalising on lots of excellent football and tennis action with three correct selections.
The early rounds of any big tournament are a good time to go hunting for an upset or two, and that is what we are doing with our tennis bets today. At the same time, we are playing it just a little safer with the football.
Remember, a Lucky 15 combines four single bets into one four-fold accumulator, four trebles, six doubles and four singles, maximising your returns if at least one selection wins.
Here are today’s bets:
- Tennis: Daniil Medvedev to beat Fabio Fognini at around Evens
- Football: Hertha Berlin to beat Hansa Rostock at around 1/2
- Football: VPS Vaasa to draw against Lahti at around 2/1
- Tennis: Mischa Zverev to beat Fernando Verdasco at around 5/4
Daniil Medvedev to beat Fabio Fognini
These two have never met before, and although Fognini’s last two tournaments saw him win in Gstaad and reach the semi-finals in Kitzbuhel, that was on the clay. He has yet to play a hard court match since, which I think gives his talented Russian opponent a significant advantage. Although he suffered an early defeat to an in-form Adrian Mannarino last week, his run to the Washington quarters – including a win over Dimitrov – showed that he could mix it with anybody on his day and I think he can catch Fognini cold here and beat him.
Hertha Berlin to beat Hansa Rostock
If last week’s League Cup action taught us anything, it was that upsets were not happening, but expect the underdogs to often score against higher ranked opposition. German third division side Hansa Rostock host Bundesliga outfit Hertha Berlin tonight and although they are in decent form, Hertha – last in action beating Galatasaray 2-1 – should be too powerful. If you want to try a bigger gamble, take Hertha to win and both teams to score at around 13/5.
VPS Vaasa to draw against Lahti
The draw between these two is a very likely option as the Finnish top flight is well underway. Fourth-placed Vaasa have drawn their last two home games while second-placed Lahti have drawn their last two away. They played out a 0-0 in their previous meeting, and neither side is renowned for goal-scoring feats – Vaasi have scored 29 in 21 matches and Lahti just one less. A safer bet is the double chance Lahti or the draw at around 4/7.
Mischa Zverev to beat Fernando Verdasco
The bookmakers make Zverev – elder brother of Montreal champion Alexander – the outsider for this one, but we think he can turn over his older opponent. Verdasco leads the head to head 4-0, but they last met in 2008, so throw that out of the window. Instead, recent form gives Zverev the edge – he pushed Dimitrov hard last week while Verdasco has played two matches in North America, suffering a poor loss to Vincent Millot in Los Cabos and not playing in Montreal.