ATP Finals tips: Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner backed to steal the show in Turin
- Derek Bilton
- 16 November 2023
Tennis tipster Derek Bilton takes a closer look at the final round-robin games at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.
This week’s column seeing the light of day moved to 7/2 at one point after I came down with a particularly heinous bout of strep throat a few days ago.
I was laid in bed for 40 hours straight from Sunday night and feared I was losing touch with reality. Indeed, at one point I was giving serious consideration to a move away from gambling altogether and into therapy sessions for people with unresolved trauma.
This therapy would happen over a bowl of pasta and I was going to call it ‘Penne for your thoughts…’ Thankfully, the antibiotics kicked in before I could trademark the name and so here we are again.
The one positive about being so poorly and teetering on the edge of an existential abyss is that it can give you some clarity.
I’ve still not properly forgiven Jannik Sinner – or the ATP schedulers – for pulling out of the Paris Masters the other week a mere matter of hours after he was tipped for glory by your truly on these very pages.
However, there’s no denying he has every chance of winning the ATP Tour Finals on home turf in Turin this week.
On Tuesday, he was involved in a jaw-dropping encounter with Novak Djokovic that lasted more than three hours. The result was huge as it not only snapped the Serb’s 19-match winning run but also gave Sinner his first ever career victory against a player who is 14 years his senior.
At time of writing Sinner is a 14/5 shot with Planet Sport Bet to win in Turin and he won’t be short of support. Over 3,000,000 Italians watched Sinner v Djokovic on TV and the ATP Tour Finals is clearly a big deal.
Although he is not yet guaranteed a semi-final spot, he will be if he wins his final round-robin match against Holger Rune on Thursday.
He’s been playing well for a while and this year has been huge for him. In 2023, he has now beaten Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev.
The win over Alcaraz in Miami seemed to give the youngster from San Candido genuine belief that he belongs at tennis’ top table, and he can underline that by wining in Turin.
It’s going to be an intriguing few days in Northern Italy, with Alacaraz needing to beat Medvedev in his final group game on Friday to stay alive.
The Russian is guaranteed to progress from the group thanks to a straight-sets win against Alexander Zverev, and I am surprised to see him as a 6/5 underdog to beat Alcaraz.
The Spaniard was bundled out of the US Open by an inspired Medvedev a few months ago, and Carlitos has really struggled to find any sort of consistency since then. Of course it was the irascible Wilde who said “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative”. However, Oscar said that having never faced Medvedev indoors.
