Canadian Open predictions, odds and tennis betting tips: Sabalenka can master Montreal rivals

Where to watch Canadian Open

Amazon Prime, from 4pm Monday

Best bets

A Zverev to win men’s Canadian Open
1pt each-way 14-1 Ladbrokes

A Sabalenka to win women’s Canadian Open
3pts 7-2 bet365, Ladbrokes

Canadian Open preview

With the final Grand Slam, the US Open, only three weeks away, tennis’s biggest names are out in full force at the Canadian Open this week as they fine tune their preparations for Flushing Meadows. 

Wimbledon champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova are both in action for the first time since winning at the All England Club, but there is no Novak Djokovic, who has withdrawn due to fatigue. 

Alcaraz is chalked up as the 7-5 favourite to win the men’s event in Toronto but the world number one doesn’t have the easiest draw to contend with. 

The number one seed receives a bye to the last 32 and while he should have few problems seeing off Ben Shelton or Bernabe Zapata Miralles, his route to the final becomes immediately harder with potentially big-serving Hubert Hurkacz lying in wait in the last 16, fifth seed Holger Rune in the quarters and either Jannik Sinner or Australian Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last four. 

Most of those players favour hardcourts making for a tough run for Alcaraz. It may therefore pay to back a player in the bottom half of the draw for the Masters series event at bigger odds each-way. 

Olympic champion Alexander Zverev is beginning to show his undoubted class once more after an injury sustained at the French Open curtailed his 2022 campaign. 

Zverev reached the semi-finals on his return to Roland Garros this year and has put in a number of promising performances since. 

The German won his home Open at the end of July and is a former Canadian Open winner, defeating the great Roger Federer in the 2017 final. 

Zverev’s route is not straightforward but if continuing to build on the recent promise he has shown, he could go deep. 

The women's Canadian Open takes place in Montreal and draw looks just as competitive, but a return to hardcourts could see Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka prosper. 

Alongside world number one Iga Swiatek, Sabalenka has been the dominant force on the WTA Tour this season. 

She has won three titles, including her Melbourne Park triumph, and reached the semi-finals of the French Open and Wimbledon too. 

The Belarusian has claimed 11 of her 23 career titles on hardcourts and when she does reach a final on the surface she invariably gets the job done, as just four runners-up efforts on the surface testify. 

Of the seeds in her half of the draw, only Petra Kvitova, a potential quarter-final foe, and Caroline Garcia have winning head-to-head-records against Sabalenka, and even then it is only 3-2 in their favour. 

Back on her favoured surface, Sabalenka may take some stopping – even if Swiatek negotiates her half of the draw and is waiting in the final.

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