A few hours after Rogers Cup ended, another major tournament is about to start, the Western and Southern Open Masters in Cincinnati. This is the oldest tournament which is still based in the city of its establishing. To be precise, the upcoming campaign is the 120th edition of this competition.
What is important for all the fans and punters who will make some bets on this tournament is the fact that both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are coming back. After skipping the Rogers Cup, the No.1 and No.2 are eager to start playing. And their impact on this tournament is enormous. Novak is the defending champion, who completed his Golden Masters here last year. After several failures in the finals (5 to be exact), the Serb finally did what no one before him managed – to win all Masters 1000 tournaments.
About FedEx, we don’t need to speak very much. He holds the record here with 7 titles, and is by far the most dominant player who ever played here. The Swiss had a perfect record in the title matches until Djokovic spoiled that in the past campaign.
Regarding this year’s predictions, the situation for Djokovic will be very tough. He potentially has several big-time servers on his way towards the finals. Sam Querrey is the first one, after him comes John Isner who already defeated him before here. Karen Khachanov or Kyrgios are next. So the Serb’s chances of defending the crown here are not that high as everybody presents them.
Meanwhile, Roger and Rafa don’t have such a nasty path in the early stages. Federer has a former champ here Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas as the most sounding names. Nadal might face with Kei Nishikori. Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem are in the part of the draw which goes to Nadal in the semis.
So when we look at this situation, we believe that Nadal and Federer have the biggest chances to reach the trophy here. We would give a slight edge to the Swill player, who feels here at home. He is the undisputed ruler of this tournament, and will have the crowd behind him for sure. Plus, he comes fresh to Ohio, after skipping Rogers Cup.
The ladies part of the tournament will be very exciting to see. Many players are coming with ambitions to win the title, and they all have solid chances of doing so. Last year’s winner Kiki Bertens faces almost an impossible task to defend the crown, as she potentially faces Simona Halep in the quarterfinals. Prior to that, she might play against Venus Williams and Victoria Azarenka.
Ashleigh Barty is in the same part of the draw as Petra Kvitova, but before that, she needs to eliminate Angelique Kerber.
It is still doubtful whether Serena Williams plays this tournament. Massive pain in her back, which prevented her from playing the finals in Canada was very severe according to her words. If the 23-time Grand Slam winner drops out, that will have a significant impact on the rest of the competition. Naomi Osaka, for example, would have an open road towards the semis, where she’d meet with Halep.
From our point of view whoever comes out as a winner from this side of a draw, will take the title here. Right now, our pick is Halep, because she looks as she is a better form currently.
All the odds are available at BetXChange, and you should visit and see them for yourself.
