Tennis Betting Tips: Italians to edge third-round battle

Bad weather has disrupted the Cincinnati Open this week, with the schedule all over the place as a result.

In my Thursday Tennis Betting Tips, I'm steering away from the singles for a change and instead, focusing my attention on the doubles. Below, I've picked out two best bets, which, combined, pay out at 6.6/1.

Set Betting - Sara Errani (ITA)/Jasmine Paolini (ITA) 2-1 vs Peyton Stearns (USA)/Marketa Vondrousova (CZE) @ 3/1

Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini have established themselves as a deadly duo in the women's doubles, winning an Olympic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and triumphing at the 2025 French Open.

Doubles specialist Errani has 35 career titles to her name in the discipline, while Paolini, runner-up in the singles at last year's French Open and Wimbledon, has nine doubles titles.

Both players are currently ranked fifth in the WTA doubles rankings, with 6,370 points each, and the Italians made light work of Olga Danilovic and Anastasia Potapova in the first round of the Cincinnati Open, beating the Serbian and Russian 6-3, 7-6.

The pair were handed a walkover in the last round as their opponents, Clara Tauson and Magda Linette, were both involved in three-set singles matches in the hours leading up to their doubles tie, and as a result of their exertions, felt they had no option but to withdraw.

Ordinarily, a walkover would ensure Errani and Paolini are well-rested ahead of the next round, but the latter is still going strong in the singles, with a last-16 tie to come against Barbora Krejcikova before she switches over to doubles.

As a result, where I would usually back the number one seeds to get the job done in straight sets, as they did against Danilovic and Potapova, I wonder whether Paolini may tire a little against Peyton Stearns and Marketa Vondrousova, who were both knocked out of the singles format in the second round last week.

I'm therefore expecting the American and Czech to be in good condition for this one, and take this tie to a third set.

Ultimately, though, I think it's the Italians who will come out on top, having won 16 of their last 19 completed matches together. They're much more experienced as a doubles team than Stearns and Vondrousova, who only debuted together last month at the Canadian Open in Montreal, where they were beaten in the second round by Danilovic and Su-Wei Hsieh.

Set Betting - Joe Salisbury (GBR)/Neal Skupski (GBR) 2-0 vs Sadio Doumbia (FRA)/Brandon Nakashima (USA) @ 9/10

Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury, ranked 11th and 12th in the live ATP doubles rankings, have reached the quarter-finals, at the very least, in their last three tournaments together.

The Brits made it to the semis of the Eastbourne Open in June, the quarters of Wimbledon last month, and the final of the Canadian Open in Toronto earlier this month, where they lost 2-1 to Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool.

Skupski and Salisbury saw off Fernando Romboli and John Patrick Smith 7-6, 6-2 in the Cincinnati Open first round on Tuesday, setting up a second-round tie with Sadio Doumbia and Brandon Nakashima, who competed together for the first time in Monday's 6-3, 6-5 victory over Austin Krajicek and Mackenzie McDonald.

Doumbia and Nakashima got their partnership off to a great start against Krajicek and McDonald, but their opponents have now lost three of their five matches together, and were teaming up for the first time in over a year.

Skupski and Salisbury are a much more established duo, and unlike Krajicek and McDonald, and Doumbia and Nakashima, for that matter, boast two double specialists, rather than one. The extra expertise should serve them well against a new duo.

Nakashima, meanwhile, was still involved in the singles as recently as Wednesday, losing 4-6, 4-6 to Alexander Zverev.

I think Skupski and Salisbury get this one done with the minimum of fuss.

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