ATP Finals in Turin, 1st group match, Monday, 13.11.2023
The entire tennis world pays tribute to Alexander Zverev. Just over a year ago, he suffered a serious ligament tear. Seven ligaments were torn, three of which were operated on. The German gradually fought his way back in 2023.
And he actually made it to the ATP Finals. There he will face Carlos Alcaraz in his first group match. He has already had some exciting duels with the world number two. In my Zverev Alcaraz tip, I reveal why I’m opting for a bet at Betano:
Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are Zverev’s group opponents at the 2023 ATP Finals. It will be anything but an easy task for the German to reach the semi-finals. After all, only the two best players progress.
He won the year-end tournament in 2018 and 2021. 2021 was the most successful year for the German, as he not only crowned himself Finals champion, but also secured the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
All good things come in threes? The bookmakers see things differently this year. According to Bwin, he is one of the outsiders in Turin at 15.0 odds. Only Holger Rune (21.0) has even higher odds to win the tournament
2023 Zverev was able to set individual highlights, winning in Hamburg and Chengdu and reaching the semi-finals at the French Open. At the Masters in Paris, he had to retire after the third round against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
In Vienna, where the tournament is also played indoors as in Paris and Turin, he reached the quarter-finals. Andrey Rublev was able to assert himself in the Austrian capital in three sets.
Zverev (3.00) is listed as a slight underdog against Alcaraz (1.40) at Bet365. They have already faced each other six times, with both players winning three matches each. The Spaniard, who has continued to mature this year, has won two matches in a row.
The high-flyer El Palmar had no trouble beating Zverev in three sets in the quarter-finals in New York: 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. A surprisingly clear defeat, but the German was not at 100 percent after his longest Grand Slam match of all time against Jannik Sinner.
He was still rehabilitating in the fourth round of Madrid, the penultimate duel against Alcaraz, in which the Spaniard Zverev suffered a clear 1-6, 2-6 defeat. Immediately before the injury in the semi-finals of the French Open, Zverev defeated Alcaraz on clay.
He also beat the Spaniard on hard courts in Vienna and Acapulco in 2021. The two-time Grand Slam triumphant slowed down somewhat towards the end of the year, repeatedly faltering in his service games and making a surprising number of mistakes
In Shanghai, it was already over in the fourth round against Grigor Dimitrov. At the Masters in Paris, it was over after the first match. Roman Safiullin, an opponent who also pushed Zverev to his limits recently, sent him home in two sets. Alcaraz only won 37 percent of the points on his second serve.
Will he be able to improve his form heading into the ATP Finals? In any case, Zverev is unlikely to make life too easy for him. He should be able to show off his strong defensive work in the sometimes shaky service games of the reigning Wimbledon champion.
A set win should definitely be possible. Bet365 offers 1.61 odds for the Zverev set. The 2.20 odds for a total of three sets in the match are also lucrative.
Incidentally, only one of the 15 rounds played ended in a tiebreak. If you bet on less than 0.5 tiebreaks, Betano Sportwetten will give you strong 1.65 odds, which is a top odds not only because of this statistic. Both players are known for their strong returns, with which they secure several breaks.
My Alcaraz Zverev tip
The ATP Finals begin with a real cracker for Zverev, who gets to play the reigning Wimbledon champion. It will be the seventh clash between two players who move incredibly quickly on the court and are outstanding on defense.
It’s no great surprise that they take their opponents’ service games by the dozen and that there has only been one tie-break between them in 15 sets.
I also expect very uneven sets due to the recent fluctuating performance of both players and assume that we will be able to talk about the fact that there was no tiebreak for the sixth time after the seventh duel.
My Alcaraz Zverev tip: No tiebreak!
