Monte Carlo Masters, 2nd Round, Wednesday, 12.04.2023
Diego Schwartzman and Jannik Sinner meet in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters. The two tennis stars played together in the doubles a day earlier, but were defeated by the Martin/Mies duo in the round of 16.
In their singles duel, Sinner is the clear favourite. The Italian has secured a place in the Top 10 by reaching the final in Miami. In my Schwartzman Sinner tip, I research the odds market and provide suitable bets on the match.
Jannik Sinner is arguably in the best form of his life, not only confirmed by world number eight, his best to date.
His 2023 is outstanding. He has won 22 of his 27 matches. In addition to reaching the final in Miami, he has already reached the last four at the first hard-court Masters in Indian Wells.
He reached the final two more times in Montpellier and Rotterdam. In France, he left the tournament as the winner. A week later, he lost out to Daniil Medvedev, as he did in Miami.
Since the Australian Open, he has only been stopped by the Russian and Carlos Alcaraz. He even won against the world number one at the last tournament. He is definitely one of the best players on the tour at the moment.
He has to play Diego Schwartzman in the first clay court Masters of the year in round two. The odds on the Italian are 1.16. The clear underdog is clay court specialist Schwartzman (5.00).
Bet365 still offers 1.57 odds for an outright 2:0 win for the Italian. Definitely a bet with value. The two tennis stars have only met once before on the tour.
In 2021, they played the final in Antwerp. On hard court, Sinner gave Schwartzman no chance, breaking twice in both sets: 6:2, 6:2 and only allowing two opportunities himself, none of which the man from Buenos Aires was able to take advantage of.
The Argentine has been far away from a final lately. From his former best ranking of eight, he has now tumbled to 37th.
Schwartzman is still looking for his form. He has only won four of his last 21 matches. In February and March, he competed in four tournaments on his favourite surface and failed each time after his first match.
In Estoril last week, he also lost to Marco Cecchinato (3-6, 6-7) after just one game. The 30-year-old celebrated his first success on the red clay against David Goffin in Monaco.
He won 6-4, 6-2 against the Belgian. However, it was Goffin’s first match after a one-and-a-half month break, who is also in a long-lasting slump after several injuries.
Therefore, the performance against Goffin should not be overestimated. Schwartzman will most likely be out of the tournament again in round two.
I see the South Tyrolean ahead in almost every tennis ability and skill. The only advantage the Argentine brings is the fact that this is Sinner’s first clay court singles match since July 2022.
Since then, the former skier has only played on hard courts. But given the fact that Sinner has won 15 of his 19 matches on the clay in 2022, show that the surface is not a problem for him either.
He has already got some time to get used to the surface through the two doubles matches with Schwartzman and after his final in Miami he had a week of preparation on clay.
As in the first meeting, a 6-2, 6-2 is a quite likely result. For under 18.5 games in the match, Bet-at-home is offering odds of 2.25.
Summary: Sinner is one of the players of the moment on the tour. Schwartzman, on the other hand, is struggling with his form and has only won one of his six matches on his favourite surface.
He has to hope that the Italian has teething problems after three quarters of a year without a clay court match on the surface. However, if Sinner can only get close to his Miami form, it will be a quick 2:0.
The Argentine repeatedly stumbles on his own service and is now up against one of the best defensive players on the tour, who will create numerous break opportunities and hardly allows anything himself.
Rarely have I been so sure about the odds as in my Schwartzman Sinner tip. I’m going for a 2:0 for Sinner and add under 0.5 tiebreaks on top
