Tennis Betting Tips: Shelton to serve up another success on Friday

Friday's Tennis Betting Tips see us head to three different countries, Germany, England and the Netherlands, looking to score an end-of-the-working-week hat-trick.

At the Stuttgart Open, we have Ben Shelton taking on Jiri Lehecka, and at Queens in London, Emma Navarro and Amanda Anisimova duel. Meanwhile, at the Libema Open in Hertogenbosch, Karen Khachanov and Gabriel Diallo face off.

Match Betting - Ben Shelton (USA) to beat Jiri Lehecka (CZE) @ 4/5

Shelton has enjoyed a good calendar year so far, reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open, the final of the BMW Open in Munich and, more recently, the last 16 of Roland-Garros, where he took a set off eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.

The 22-year-old began his grass court season on Wednesday, beating Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 2-0 (7-6, 7-5) in the last 16 of the Stuttgart Open. It took until the 11th game of the second set for the American to break his opponent's serve, but he will take great confidence from the fact that he held his own throughout the contest.

Next up for Shelton is a quarter-final against Lehecka, who also won in straight sets on Tuesday, beating German Jan-Lennard Struff 2-0 (6-4, 7-5), a couple of days after a 2-0 (6-4, 6-4) victory over Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi.

The Czech No.3's serve hasn't been broken yet, but he wasn't overly convincing against Struff, a player 12 years his senior and 70 places below in the ATP rankings, with noticeable expressions of frustration on court.

The 23-year-old is likely to find things much tougher on Friday against the World No. 12, who will be confident of holding serve again, meaning he only has to break his opponent once, or come out on top in a couple of tiebreakers.

At just under EVS, I'm happy to back a confident Shelton to do the business in Germany.

Total Games 4 - Over 22.5 in Emma Navarro (USA) vs Amanda Anisimova (USA) @ 11/10

An all-American match takes place at Queens on Friday, as the USA's No. 4 Navarro, ranked 10th by the WTA, takes on No. 5 Anisimova (ranked 15th).

Navarro and Anisimova have faced off three times before, with the latter winning all three matches - two of them in straight sets; however, the Americans have never played each other on grass.

Anisimova reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2022 but was knocked out in the third qualifying round last year, when Navarro herself reached the last eight, losing to the eventual losing finalist, Jasmine Paolini.

Navarra was involved in a terrific contest with Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia on Wednesday, winning 2-1 (1-6, 7-6, 6-3) after saving a match point in the second set.

Anisimova, meanwhile, enjoyed a more routine last-16 victory over Great Britain's Sonay Kartal, losing just four games (6-1, 6-3).

The 23-year-old arrives into this contest as the 1/2 favourite against Navarro (13/8), but despite winning all three previous head-to-heads, Anisimova has been made to work for her last two victories in particular. She won in three sets (6-3, 2-6, 6-2) at the National Bank Open in Toronto last August, while even in a straight-set success (7-5, 7-6) at the Charleston Open in April, the match went over 22.5 games, which is what we need to land the above selection.

I can see Friday's contest going to three sets, or if just two, then a similar score to that of Anisimova's Charleston victory.

Match Result - Karen Khachanov (WRL) to beat Gabriel Diallo (CAN) @ 8/15

Over in the Dutch city of Hertogenbosch, World No. 24 Khachanov pits his wits against World No. 55 Diallo in the Libema Open quarter-finals.

The pair have met three times before, with the Russian Khachanov winning all three head-to-heads, most recently at the Australian Open in January, but this is their first match against each other on grass.

Khachanov beat American Mackenzie McDonald (6-3, 5-7, 7-6) in the last 16 on Wednesday, setting up a final-eight match against the Canadian Diallo, who overcame Australian Jordan Thompson (4-6, 6-1, 7-5) on the same day.

Diallo and Khachanov hit 11 and 13 aces, respectively, in the previous round, so we can expect some big-serving points on Friday, and I think this could be a good battle, but ultimately, I expected the more established 29-year-old to see off an opponent six years his junior.

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