Tennis Betting Tips: Nadal pushing for semi-final spot

The Paris Olympics are just around the corner, and there's plenty of clay court action to enjoy before the players don their national colours. With four ATP tournaments this week, I've selected out three bets for my tennis betting tips for Friday, July 19.

One of my colleague's picks from yesterday managed to land, so here's hoping I can land a clean sweep here.

Tennis Odds

Game Handicap - Rafael Nadal (-3.5) vs Mariano Navone @ 1/2

The great Spaniard may not have featured much this season, but the 22-time Slam winner is looking sharp heading into next week's Olympics.

'The King of Clay' has rolled back the years so far at ATP Bastad, defeating Britain's Cam Norrie yesterday to set up a quarter-final clash with number four seed Mariano Navone. The Argentinian eased past Sumit Nagal in straight sets in the previous round, and has his eyes firmly set on securing a maiden ATP Tour crown in Sweden.

Defeating Navone would see Nadal make the semi-finals of a top-level singles event for the first time in 2024, and I'm siding with Spaniard here as his performance against Norrie was arguably his best this season.

Total Games  - Over 23.5 in Holger Rune vs Arthur Fils @ 1/1

An intriguing match-up this one, and one we could see several times over the next decade or so.

Rune and Fils are both young stars eager to secure their first title this season, and both have been making noises in recent weeks. Rune has found the most joy on clay out of all the surfaces, and his performance against Novak Djokovic at the ATP Masters in Rome last year was evidence of that.

The Dane started strong at ATP Hamburg, by beating Fabian Marozsan in the first round and continued that form with a victory over Marco Trungelliti to secure a spot in the quarter-finals.

Fils made a name for himself at Wimbledon, and is looking to turn that form into the biggest title of his career so far.  The Frenchman made the semi-finals in Hamburg a year ago, and his triumph over Laslo Djere in the previous round means he's now reached six tour-level quarter-finals this season.

I think this one will go the distance, which is why I'm taking the over on the total games.

Set Betting - Alexander Zverev to beat Zhizhen Zhang 2-1 @ 7/10

Top seed Alexander Zverev kept alive his hopes to defend the ATP Hamburg title with a topsy-turvy 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory against Frenchman Hugo Gaston.

The German suffered a knee injury at Wimbledon but looks to have made a steady recovery, producing superb all-court coverage, chasing down a plethora of drop shots and showing no troubling signs of movement against Gaston.

His opponent Zhizhen Zhang was in the semi-finals last year and seems to enjoy the conditions in Hamburg. He possess the ball-striking talent to keep up with Zverev, but it’s doubtful whether he can keep himself steady enough to trouble the top seed.

I can see Zhang taking a set, but Zverev will come out on top here and move one step closer to defending his title.

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