Daily Tennis Tips – Wednesday 14th May

See below for our expert daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Wednesday May 14, 2025!

Reigning French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz and burgeoning Jack Draper lock horns in the Rome Masters quarter-finals.

Alcaraz has a 3-2 record against the Brit, including a victory at the Australian Open earlier this year. But Draper took out their Indian Wells Masters semi-final in March on his way to a maiden ATP 1000 title.

Surging to No.5, Draper has displayed his clay-court chops by reaching the Madrid Masters final a fortnight ago – losing a three-setter to Casper Ruud – and has put away Luciano Darderi, Vit Kopriva and Corentin Moutet in Rome.

World No.3 Alcaraz won the Monte-Carlo Masters and reached the Barcelona Open final last month, before pulling out of Madrid. This week he’s accounted for Dusan Lajovic and Laslo Djere in straight sets, and outlasted Karen Khachanov 6-3 3-6 7-5 in the Round of 16.

Draper has emerged as an all-surface threat in recent weeks, but Alcaraz is the sport’s premier red dirt player and looks primed to complete his set of ATP 1000 clay titles in Rome.  

World No.2 Alexander Zverev and recent top-10 entry Lorenzo Musetti meet in the Rome Masters quarter-finals.

Musetti has a 2-1 record against Zverev, who won their initial clash at the 2022 Madrid Masters. Since then, the Italian has picked up 2024 wins at the Paris Olympics on clay and the Vienna Open.

It’s been a sensational clay swing for Musetti so far, surging to No.9 by reaching the Monte-Carlo Masters final and the Madrid Masters semis – beating Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur at both.

In Rome, the 23-year-old has disposed of Otto Virtanen, Brandon Nakashima and Daniil Medvedev in straight sets.

Defending Rome Masters champ and 2024 French Open runner-up Zverev has had an underwhelming clay season to date with a first-up exit to Matteo Berrettini in Monte-Carlo and a Round of 16 loss to Francisco Cerundolo in Madrid.

But he’s returned to top form here, thrashing Camilo Ugo Carabelli and Vilius Gaubas, then seeing off 13th seed Arthur Fils 7-6 6-1.

This shapes as an absolute barnburner, however, with Musetti every chance of pulling off another upset of the German superstar.

Top-10 rivals Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva square off in the Rome Masters quarter-finals, the second straight WTA 1000 event they have met at this stage.

One of the few big guns Andreeva is yet to topple, Gauff boasts a 3-0 record in the rivalry – winning at the French and US Opens in 2023, and carving out a 7-5 6-1 victory in the Madrid Masters quarters three weeks ago.

Gauff went on to thrash Iga Swiatek in the Madrid semis, then lost the final to Aryna Sabalenka. The fourth seed lost the first set to Victoria Mboko in Rome but has since powered past Magda Linette (7-5 6-3) and Emma Raducanu (6-1 6-2).

Seventeen-year-old Andreeva has come back to the field somewhat after her giant-killing triumphs in Dubai and Indian Wells. But the 2024 French Open semi-finalist has comfortably accounted for Emiliana Arango and Linda Noskova in Rome, before seeing off 22nd seed Clara Tauson 5-7 6-3 6-2.

An absorbing struggle looms here, but Gauff is unquestionably enjoying the more impressive clay swing and deserves her $1.67 favouritism.

World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka will look to continue her dominance over eight-ranked Qinwen Zheng in the Rome Masters quarter-finals.

Sabalenka is 6-0 against Zheng with all but one of the victories coming in straight sets with a games margin of five-plus. Most recently the Belarusian powerhouse won 6-2 7-5 at the Miami Masters in March.

Sabalenka is also in imperious form, taking out the title in Madrid before reaching the Stuttgart Open final and taking out the Madrid Masters for the loss of just one set.

The runner-up in Rome last year, Sabalenka has eliminated Anastasia Potapova (6-3 6-3), Sofia Kenin (3-6 6-3 6-3) and Marta Kostyuk (6-1 7-6).

Zheng underlined her clay-court ability with a shock Olympic gold triumph at Roland Garros last year and is into her third straight Rome quarter-final after wins over Olga Danilovic (6-1 6-4), Magdalena Frech (6-3 6-2) and Bianca Andreescu (7-5 6-1).

Despite that impressive run, Zheng’s prospects of running her 2024 Australian Open final conqueror close remain fairly minimal when Sabalenka is in this mood.