Daily Tennis Tips – Tuesday 13th May

See below for our expert daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Tuesday May 13, 2025!

Sixth seed Jasmine Paolini has rediscovered the form that carried her into the French Open and Wimbledon finals in 2024, but 13th seed Diana Shnaider shapes as a formidable quarter-final opponent at the Rome Masters.

Paolini won their only previous clash, in straight sets in the first round of last year’s Australian Open.

A Miami Masters semi-finalist in March, Paolini reached the semis in Stuttgart (losing to Aryna Sabalenka at both). She made an early exit in Madrid but has been on fire in Rome with wins over Lulu Sun (6-4 6-3), Ons Jabeur (6-4 6-3) and in-form Jelena Ostapenko (7-5 6-2).

Shnaider has produced easily her best of the clay swing so far in Rome, thrashing Caroline Dolehide (6-0 6-0), Jacqueline Cristian (6-3 6-3) and 25th seed Elise Mertens (6-2 6-3). This is the Russian tyro’s second WTA 1000 quarter-final, having reached the Canadian Masters semis last year.

But Paolini’s clay-court prowess should win out here.

American Peyton Stearns is vying for her maiden WTA 1000 semi-final berth at the Rome Masters, but she has to overcome 16th seed and two-time champ Elina Svitolina to get there.

World No.42 Stearns, who reached the last eight at the Canadian Masters, beat Amanda Anisimova on her way to the last 16 in Madrid, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka.

The 23-year-old has gone up a gear in Rome with wins over Anna Kalinskaya, world No.5 Madison Keys and Naomi Osaka.

Svitolina is enjoying an outstanding clay season, winning the Open de Rouen then reaching the semis in Madrid (including a win over Elena Rbyakina) where she also fell to Sabalenka.

The 2018-19 Rome Masters winner has chalked up straight-sets wins over Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and Danielle Collins either side of a three-set defeat of Hailey Baptiste so far here.

Svitolina is the clear head-to-head pick, but Stearns should provide a solid test.

Striving to kick-start a disappointing season at the Rome Masters, Hubert Hurkacz takes on young gun Jakub Mensik in the Round of 16.

Their only meeting to date was at the 2024 Australian Open, with Hurkacz twice coming from a set down to win in five.

But top-10 regular Hurkacz has slipped to No.31 amid a poor run of results and injuries. He missed Miami and Monte-Carlo, before returning in Madrid with a loss to Benjamin Bonzi.

The Pole, a two-time ATP 1000 title winner, has regrouped in Rome with wins over Pedro Martinez and Marcos Giron.

Nineteen-year-old Mensik has attained a career-high ranking of No.21 after a breakthrough Miami Masters triumph and a run to the quarters in Madrid. In recent days he has accounted for Matteo Gigante and Fabian Marozsan in tight straight-set results.

Mensik has a brief clay-court CV – he is yet to appear in the French Open’s main draw – but he has looked more than comfortable on the red dirt of late.

Alex de Minaur is looking to continue his dominance over Tommy Paul in the Rome Masters’ Round of 16.

De Minaur is 5-0 against Paul, including a straight-sets victory at this tournament in 2022. Most recently the Aussie prevailed in the Acapulco Open final and the Los Cabos quarter-finals in 2023.

After his Madrid Masters foray that included wins over Lorenzo Sonego and Denis Shapovalov before losing to Lorenzo Musetti, world No.8 de Minaur has accounted for Luca Nardi (6-4 7-5) and Hugo Dellien (6-4 6-4) in Rome.

Twelfth-ranked Paul also exited the Madrid Masters in the Round of 16, following up wins over Joao Fonesca and Karen Khachanov with a convincing loss to Jack Draper. He’s put away Roberto Bautista Agut (6-1 6-4) and 19th seed Tomas Machac (6-3 6-7 6-4) so far here.

‘Demon’s’ dominance of this rivalry – and better clay-court credentials, improving dramatically on this surface over the past couple of season – are impossible to overlook in this one.