Daily Tennis Tips – Wednesday 7th May

See below for our expert daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Thursday May 1, 2025!

Australia’s Rinky Hijikata takes on France’s Corentin Moutet in the first round of the Rome Masters.

Hijikata was eliminated in the first round in Madrid by Reilly Opelka, after winning qualifiers against Lloyd Harris and Fabio Fognini.

The world No.82’s clay swing has otherwise consisted of a loss to Chris Eubanks in Houston and a qualifying defeat to Alexander Shevchenko at the BMW Open.

Moutet, ranked one spot lower, went down to Harold Mayot first up in Madrid and played in a Challenger event last week, beating Pavel Kotov before losing to Opelka.

The 26-year-old reached the fourth round of the French Open last year.

Hijikata’s clay-court CV is comparatively thin. Neither player has much of a recent form base to draw upon, but Moutet certainly shapes as the safer option.

Aussie stalwart Jordan Thompson is a $1.65 favourite to eliminate higher-ranked Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round of the Rome Masters.

Thompson has built a 4-0 lead over Mpetshi Perricard, including victories this season at the Miami Masters and Monte-Carlo Masters. The young Frenchman is yet to take a set off Thompson.

Thompson has dipped just outside the top 40 but has been in reasonable form.

After his respective wins over Mpetshi Perricard, he pushed big guns Alexander Zverev in Miami and Stefanos Tsitsipas in Monte-Carlo. This is his first match since the latter.

World No.36 Mpetshi Perricard is on a six-match losing streak going back to Indian Wells.

Since his back-to-back losses to Thompson, he has been bounced out of the Barcelona Open by Hamad Medjedovic and the Madrid Masters by Mariano Navone.

A reigning doubles champion in Madrid, Thompson’s singles results on clay are fairly modest.

The towering Mpetshi Perricard won the Lyon Open last year and is compelling value to turn the tables on a potentially underdone Thompson.

Sliding star Maria Sakkari lines up against in-form Belinda Bencic in the Rome Masters’ first round.

Former top-10 staple Sakkari is ranked 81st and facing the prospect of falling further.

But she found some form in Madrid, beating Wang Xinyu, Magda Linette and French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini, before falling to Elina Svitolina in the Round of 16.

The power-hitter from Greece was forced to make her way through qualifying in Rome and had to come from a set down to beat both Chloe Paquet and Maja Chwalinska.

Bencic, back inside the top 40 after a stellar comeback from maternity break, was trounced first up at the Charleston Open by Sofia Kenin.

But she found her clay groove in Madrid, reaching the last 16 with wins over Zeynep Sonmez, Clara Tauson and Beatriz Haddad Maia before Coco Gauff proved too good.

The head-to-head is one-all, with Sakkari winning at the 2020 St Petersburg Open and Bencic at the 2022 Berlin Open.

Sakkari has a solid clay record – including semi-final appearances in Madrid, Rome and the French Open – but her shaky qualifying performances were yet another reminder of her frustrating inconsistency.

Rising Aussie star Maya Joint takes on grand slam winner Emma Raducanu in the first round of the Rome Masters.

Joint, her only turned 19 last month, has climbed to No.78 in the rankings.

She qualified for Madrid and grabbed a maiden WTA 1000 win over Carlota Martinez Cirez before impressing in a 7-5 7-5 loss to Emma Navarro.

The American-born tyro defeated Maria Lourdes Carle and Viktorija Golubic to earn her main draw berth in Rome.

World No.49 Raducanu was struggling for wins until powering into the Miami Masters quarter-finals, beating the likes of Navarro and Amanda Anisimova.

In her only matches since, she beat Suzan Lamens in the first round in Madrid before going down to Marta Kostyuk in three sets.

The injury-prone Raducanu made the third round in Madrid in 2022, but she is still a relatively unproven clay-courter.

Joint has beaten some well-credentialled players on tour this year (Kenin, Linette, Vekic) and can push the Brit hard here.