Tennis Betting Tips: Fonseca to take off in Toronto

With the Washington Open all wrapped up, it's now time to focus on the Canadian Open, which started on Monday, split between Montreal (WTA) and Toronto (ATP).

My Tennis Betting Tips for Monday, July 28, which you can check out below, include a selection from the men's singles and two from the women's singles.

Set Betting - Joao Fonseca (BRA) 2-0 vs Tristan Schoolkate (AUS) @ 5/6

I'll start by handing credit to 24-year-old Aussie Tristan Schoolkate, who took the first set off World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in a 3-1 defeat to the Italian at the Australian Open earlier this year.

Schoolkate has enjoyed a solid season, making good progress on the main tour, which recently included a quarter-final at Los Cabos in Mexico, where he lost out 2-0 to Canadian and World No. 29 Denis Shapovalov.

However, he faces a tough battle in the first round of the Canadian Open on Monday, up against Brazilian No. 1 and World No. 49 Joao Fonseca, who has enjoyed a brilliant first full season on the main tour.

The 18-year-old holds a 17-3 record on hard courts this year, with a 3-0 victory over ninth seed Andrey Rublev at the Australian Open in January his highlight success.

Fonseca has enjoyed some much-needed rest this month, having last played on July 4, when he lost 3-1 to Nicolas Jarry in the third round of Wimbledon. The teenager should, therefore, be fresh for his first-round meeting with Schoolkate, who has played nine matches already this month - seven more than the Brazilian.

Schoolkate has the capabilities to cause a few problems for Fonseca, but he's yet to beat a top-50 opponent in his career, losing all five previous contests, and if his opponent is anywhere near his best, he will struggle to even win a set, so I'm taking the South American star in two here.

Set Betting - Katie Boulter (GBR) 2-0 vs Renata Zarazua (MEX) @ 5/6

Katie Boulter's fiance, Alex de Minaur, collected his 10th tour-level title in the early hours of Monday, beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 2-1 in a sensational comeback victory at the Washington Open.

The focus now shifts to Boulter, who is in action on Monday against Renata Zarazua at the Canadian Open in Montreal.

Boulter, who has won three titles on the WTA Tour, enjoyed a decent run in this tournament in Toronto last year, making the third round before bowing out to Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets.

Her next opponent, Mexico's Zarazua, will make her debut at the Canadian Open after receiving a direct entry on account of her maintaining a top-100 ranking (currently 68th).

The 27-year-old has, though, lost 11 of her last 12 meetings with top-100 players, and hasn't won back-to-back matches since finishing as runner-up at the W100 Madrid in April.

Zarazua has been knocked out in the second round of her last four tournaments, but with much stronger competition in the first round here, she's facing an even earlier exit.

World No. 43 Boulter is expected to easily beat Zarazua, who has failed to triumph in any of her last five hard-court contests, last tasting success on the surface on February 7 against Darja Semenistaja, who was forced to retire 6-2, 2-1 down in the second set.

Set Betting - Emma Raducanu (GBR) 2-1 vs Elena-Gabriela Ruse (ROM) @ 3/1

After a tough few years on the circuit, Emma Raducanu has breathed fresh life into her career this season, notably reaching the quarter-finals of the Miami Open in March and the last 16 of the Italian Open in May, before a spirited 6-7, 4-6 defeat to World No. 1 Sabalenka in the third round of Wimbledon earlier this month.

The 22-year-old was next in action at the Washington Open, where she impressed again, winning her first three matches in straight sets before falling to Anna Kalinskaya in the semi-finals.

It's still early days in terms of assessing whether the Brit will ever be able to scale the heights of 2021, when she won the US Open, but she certainly looks to be in good spirits, and is playing some great tennis.

I'm expecting her to reach the second round of the Canadian Open, but I fear she may have to dig deep on Monday against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, who forced her to three sets on hard court at the Auckland Classic in January last year.

It should be noted that the match was Raducanu's first in nearly nine months following a spell on the sidelines with injuries, but Ruse remains a handy player, reaching the final of the Libema Open in s'Hertogenbosch last month, when she lost 2-0 to Elise Mertens.

The Romanian made a losing return to the hard court last Tuesday, suffering a 2-0 defeat to Katerina Siniakova in the Prague Open, but reached the third round of the Miami Open in March, beating Magdalena Frech along the way before retiring against Sabalenka following a 1-6 loss in the first set.

Raducanu has played four times since Ruse was last in action, finishing her most recent match in the early hours of Sunday, so her opponent may be able to take advantage of any tiredness present.

However, while I'm backing Ruse to take a set, I'm confident Raducanu can recover to claim victory.

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