Daily Tennis Tips – Thursday April 3

See below for our daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Thursday April 3 at the US Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston and the ATP Bucharest, including the top tips and players to back in our tennis betting markets!

Aussie stalwart Christopher O’Connell takes on fourth seed Nicolas Jarry in the Bucharest Open’s Round of 16.

The pair met for the first and only time to date in the first round of last year’s US Open, O’Connell prevailing in four sets.

World No.87 O’Connell defeated veteran clay specialist Dusan Lajovic 6-4 6-3 in the first round, his first match since a first-round loss to Roberto Carballes Baena at the Miami Masters. The 30-year-old’s best showing in 2025 was reaching the last 16 in Doha and Dubai back-to-back.

Inside the top 20 this time last year, Jarry has slipped to No.58 and is just 3-5 in an injury-interrupted start to the year. The 2024 Rome Masters runner-up had a poor South American clay swing and pulled out of the Sunshine Double events before getting a first-round bye here.

Jarry is clearly the better player – especially on this surface – at his peak, but with very little form on the board he will find O’Connell more than a handful here.

In a repeat of the 2024 final match-up, Marton Fucsovics and seventh seed Mariano Navone square off in the Bucharest Open’s Round of 16.

Fucsovics won last year’s decider 6-4 7-5, the duo’s only clash to date. It was Fucsovics’ second ATP title (after the 2018 Geneva Open, also on clay) and the second of Navone’s two ATP finals, having also lost the Rio Open decider two months earlier.

Navone subsequently rose to a career-high No.29 but is currently ranked 61st. He had a reasonable clay swing in South America – including an Argentina Open upset of Holger Rune – but he went down to Ben Shelton and Lorenzo Sonego in straight sets early at the Sunshine Double events.

The 24-year-old held off Laslo Djere 6-1 4-6 6-2 in the first round here. Fucsovics, 33, thrashed Luca Nardi 6-3 6-1.

World No.90 Fucsovics had only played one tour-level match this year coming into this tournament, a first-round loss to Nardi in Dubai. He’s otherwise been plugging away on the Challenger circuit with limited success.

Fucsovics was comfortably the more impressive of the pair in the first round, but Navone’s overall formline is more trustworthy and he should prevail in a close one.

Brandon Nakashima is piecing together a career-best season, but he has a decent bogey to overcome in the shape of fellow American Mackenzie McDonald.

Nakashima won a Challenger match against McDonald in 2020, but McDonald has won all four of their ATP Tour-level clashes – at the 2021 Cincinnati Masters, the 2023 Australian Open and Acapulco Open, and the 2024 Atlanta Open.

World No.33 Nakashima made the last 16 at both Sunshine Double events on the back of a quarter-final at Delray Beach and a semi-final at the Mexican Open.

McDonald, ranked 100th, battled past Daniel Elahi Galan 6-2 6-7 6-4 in the first round. He lost to Franciso Cerundolo in the second round at Indian Wells after beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, then went down to Nick Kyrgios first up at the Miami Masters.

A couple of Challenger semi-finals are the most notable results the former top-40 player has produced in 2025.

Nakashima doesn’t have a bulging clay-court CV – though he beat Andrey Rublev at last year’s Barcelona Open, one of only two top-10 wins in his career – but it’s hard to see the fourth seed not reversing his run of outs against McDonald.

In-form Aussie Adam Walton takes on second seed Frances Tiafoe in the Round of 16 at the American’s pet event, the US Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston.

Tiafoe defeated Walton 7-6 6-3 three month ago at the Brisbane International in their maiden encounter.

World No.17 Tiafoe won this tournament in 2023 and reached the final last year. But he’s struggled for consistency in 2025, losing his second match at every event he’s entered for a 6-6 record. He lost to Yosuke Watanuki at Indian Wells and Arthur Fils in the Miami Masters.

Walton has earned a career-high ranking of No.85 after getting to the Round of 16 in Miami as a lucky loser, beating Luciano Darderi and Coleman Wong before going down to Taylor Fritz. He put away Michael Mmoh 6-3 7-6 in the first round here.

But the 25-year-old is yet to claim anything close to a big-name scalp. He’s certainly capable of making this a contest but Tiafoe should be too strong on a court he has made his personal playground in recent years.