ATP & WTA weekly tennis tournament previews, best bets and free tips

Tennis previews and best bets for the ATP tournaments in Rio de Janeiro, Marseille and Delray Beach and the WTA event in Dubai.

When to watch

Amazon Prime, 10am (WTA Dubai) & 4.30pm (ATP Rio) Monday

Best bets

Dominic Thiem to win ATP Rio Open
1pt 7-5 bet365

Amanda Anisimova to win WTA Dubai Championship
1pt each-way 28-1 bet365, Coral, Ladbrokes

Vasek Pospisil to win ATP Open 13 Provence
1pt each-way 25-1 bet365, Betfair, Paddy Power

Taylor Fritz to win ATP Delray Beach Open
1pt 12-1 Coral, Ladbrokes

Tournament previews

With an indoor hard-court event in Rotterdam dominating last week's ATP schedule, this week it's the turn of the clay-courters to be in the limelight as the 500 Series ATP Rio Open takes place in Brazil.

Diego Schwartzman, originally meant to be seeded second in Rio, is sidelined for a few weeks due to a hamstring tear so the chances of top seed Dominic Thiem adding to his 2017 title there have increased.

Thiem is arguably the second-best clay-courter in the world, having lost to Rafael Nadal in the French Open final in the last two years.

But given his recent improvement on hard courts, Thiem is a more complete performer and the Australian Open finalist is good enough to win in Rio in a cakewalk.

The problem is, supposed shoo-ins don't always oblige in sport. Thiem opens against Felipe Meligeni Rodriguez Alves, a 21-year-old nephew of Brazilian tennis legend and French Open semi-finalist Fernando Meligeni.

That may be a tricky curtain-raiser for Thiem but if he survives it he ought to have too much for last week's Buenos Aires finalist Casper Ruud, 2016 Rio runner-up Guido Pella and 2018 finalist Fernando Verdasco.

Promising Chilean Cristian Garin went all the way in Cordoba in week one of the Golden Swing and he could be the major force in the bottom half of the draw, although second seed Dusan Lajovic will take heart from his fellow Serb Laslo Djere lifting the trophy in Rio 12 months ago.

The best tournament of the week is the WTA Dubai Duty Free Championship, the only one on the women's tour after the Bucharest event was cancelled.

Top seed and Wimbledon champion Simona Halep is bidding for a second desert crown after her victory in 2015, but Elina Svitolina was the dominant force in 2017 and 2018 until Belinda Bencic got her head in front last year.

Bencic may not be play­ing at her absolute peak so an each-way interest on talented American teenager Amanda Anisimova could be prudent.

Second seed Karolina Pliskova is another potential stumbling block, but even though the Czech made the Dubai final in 2015 this may not be her favourite event.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is seeded second for his Open 13 Provence title defence in Marseille – Daniil Medvedev is the top seed – but Montpellier finalist Vasek Pospisil could be worth following to enjoy further success now that the Canadian is over the injury problems that have plagued him in recent years.

Nick Kyrgios is the top seed in Delray Beach but the Australian's focus remains questionable and should he lose early in the week, steady improver Taylor Fritz could be the one to take advantage.

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