Daily Tennis Tips – Friday 9th May

See below for our expert daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Friday May 9, 2025!

World No.1 and 2024 runner-up Aryna Sabalenka lines up against world No.34 Anastasia Potapova in the Rome Masters’ second round.

The pair have met just once, with Sabalenka winning 6-1 6-2 at the Stuttgart Open semis in 2023. They were scheduled to meet in the same tournament two weeks ago but Potapova pulled out.

Sabalenka went on to reach the final in Stuttgart – losing to Jelena Ostapenko – before storming to her third Madrid Masters title for the loss of just one set.

Potapova produced a handy run to the last 16 in Madrid, beating Ashlyn Krueger, Qinwen Zheng and Sofia Kenin, before losing to Marta Kostyuk. The 24-year-old outlasted Dayana Yastremska 2-6 7-6 6-3 in the first round in Rome in an impressive fightback.

It’s a tough one to back up against the might of Sabalenka from, however, and the Belarusian force should progress comfortably.

A pair of French Open finalists square off in the second round at the Rome Masters in the shape of veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and 31st seed Sofia Kenin.

Kenin leads the head-to-head 2-1 after two wins in China in 2019, but Pavlyuchenkova can take confidence from a dominant 6-3 6-1 victory in Abu Dhabi in February.

World No.52 Pavlyuchenkova went 0-4 after that win, however, including a loss to Anastasija Sevastova in Madrid, before arresting the slide with an impressive 6-3 6-3 defeat of Katie Boulter in the first round here. She was the 2021 runner-up at Roland Garros.

Kenin is enjoying a strong 2025 season, subsequently reaching the quarters in Dubai and the Charleston Open final with a string of wins over higher-ranked opponents. She lost to Anastasia Potapova in Madrid after beating Lulu Sun in the first round.

The 2020 French Open runner-up made the third round in Rome in 2023-24 and deserves her $1.55 favouritism on the strength of her performances on this clay swing so far.

Aussie Jordan Thompson heads into his second-round clash at the Rome Masters with Brandon Nakashima as a $2.63 underdog.

Nakashima boasts a 4-2 record against Thompson, most recently winning their second-round clash at Wimbledon last year in three comfortable sets (atoning for his loss to Thompson at the All England Club a year earlier). This is their first meeting on clay.

World No.41 Thompson defeated Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 3-6 6-3 7-6 in the first round. His only other win on the clay swing was against the same opponent, at the Monte-Carlo Masters.

Nakashima, in the midst of a career-best season, reached the semis in Houston and bounced back from a couple of first-up exits by reaching the last 16 in Madrid with wins over Sebastian Ofner and Flavio Cobolli. He eventually went down to Daniil Medvedev in three sets.

Neither player has the strongest clay-court CV and this one shapes as a lengthy arm-wrestle with Thompson coming off a gritty first-round performance.

Alexei Popyrin gets his Rome Masters campaign underway against journeyman Carlos Taberner in the second round.

They have met once previously, on clay at a Bordeaux Challenger with Popyrin winning in three sets.

Popyrin, the 24th seed, started his clay swing with an excellent quarter-final run at the Monte-Carlo Masters, beating Ugo Humbert, Frances Tiafoe and Casper Ruud, before going down to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Since then, though, he lost first-up to Alexander Bublik in Madrid and at the Challenger Aix-en-Provence to Stan Wawrinka.

World No.139 Taberner won qualifiers against Adrian Mannarino and Jaime Faria to make the main draw, then upset Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-3 1-6 7-5 in the first round – just the 27-year-old’s second win in only his fourth match at ATP 1000 level.

But Popyrin shapes as the clear option here, providing excellent value as only a $1.44 favourite.