See below for our expert daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Monday 13th of October 2025!
An all-American showdown in the first round of the Ningbo Open sees 26-year-olds Sofia Kenin and Mccartney Kessler square off for the first time.
World No.28 Kenin has won her last three first-round matches and is coming off a second-round loss to Liudmila Samsonova at the Wuhan Open. Consistency has been an issue since a strong clay swing.
Kessler, ranked 33rd, made an impressive Round of 16 run at the China Open with wins over Elise Mertens and Barbora Krejcikova, but she lost first up to Jaqueline Cristian at the Wuhan Open.
Her North American hard-court swing included a win over Maria Andreeva in Montreal, the second top-10 scalp of her career.
Whether those recent results are enough to justify Kessler heading in as a $1.57 favourite remains to be seen; this looms as a topsy-turvy battle between the Florida products.
Former top-10 star Maria Sakkari and American tyro Ashlyn Krueger lock horns for the second time in three weeks at the Japan Women’s Open.
The pair’s first showdown at last month’s China Open was a barnburner, with Sakkari eventually prevailing 7-6 6-7 7-5.
The enigmatic Sakkari, currently ranked 56th, was subsequently swamped 6-2 6-0 by Leylah Fernandez.
World No.50 Krueger played at last week’s Wuhan Open but lost in the first round to Hailey Baptiste, her fourth straight defeat since beating Sofia Kenin in the first round of the US Open.
With neither player’s formlines instilling a great deal of confidence, backing another three-set battle shapes as a solid option.
Seventh-seeded Aussie Alexei Popyrin takes on injury-prone American Sebastian Korda in the first round of the Stockholm Open.
Korda leads the head-to-head 2-1, but Popyrin won the most recent clash – a 7-6 6-3 victory on his way to the 2024 Canadian Masters title.
World No.40 Popyrin returns to action for the first time since a straight-sets loss to Jannik Sinner in the US Open’s second round. He broke into the top 20 briefly by reaching the Canadian Masters quarters but his momentum has stalled since.
Ranked 63rd after hitting a career-high No.15 last August, Korda spent almost three months on the sidelines before returning on the eve of the US Open, where he retired against Cameron Norrie in the first round.
The big-serving Korda had an encouraging Asian swing, including a win over Adam Walton at the Hangzhou Open and a spirited three-set loss to Taylor Fritz at the Japan Open, before losing first up to Zizou Bergs at the Shanghai Masters.
With recent court time under his belt, Korda heads into this as a $1.48 favourite – but Popyrin has every reason to be confident of victory if he can find his rhythm early on.
Towering American Reilly Opelka and Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi square off for the second time in less than a fortnight at the European Open in Brussels.
The head-to-head is one-all, though Opelka’s win was at a Bordeaux Challenger in 2018. Bonzi won 7-6 6-2 in the first round of the Shanghai Masters earlier this month.
It was world No.64 Opelka’s fourth straight loss, last chalking up a win courtesy of an upset of Alex de Minaur at the Cincinnati Masters.
Bonzi went on to lose to Gabriel Diallo in the second round in Shanghai. The 29-year-old has claimed a string of big scalps in the past couple of months, however, including Daniil Medvedev (twice), Lorenzo Musetti and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
World No.48 Bonzi looks solid value to repeat the dose against Opelka.