Tennis Betting Tips: Back another game-heavy Gauff match in Montreal

After coming close to landing all three selections on Tuesday, Wednesday's Tennis Betting Tips saw us drop down to one in three, as Gabriel Diallo's 2-0 victory over Matteo Gigante proved to be our only winner at 5/6.

Undeterred, I return with Thursday's Tennis Betting Tips, which, once again, all come from the Canadian Open; two from the WTA women's singles in Montreal, and one from the ATP men's singles in Toronto.

Match Betting - Daria Kasatkina (AUS) to beat Marta Kostyuk (UKR) @ 5/4

Marta Kostyuk ended a run of six consecutive defeats on Tuesday, beating Marketa Vondrousova (2-6, 6-3, 6-2) in the Canadian Open second round; the 23-year-old's previous victory came at the Italian Open in Rome on May 11, so this was a welcome win for the Ukrainian.

Daria Kasatkina hasn't been in sparkling form since the start of June, either, suffering four successive defeats before breaking out of her losing habit in the first round of Wimbledon, making the third round before falling short against Liudmila Samsonova (2-6, 3-6).

The Russian-born Australian, who switched nationalities earlier this year, made a strong return to the hard courts, though, beating Anna Blinkova (6-1, 6-4) on Tuesday.

Kasatkina, who reached six WTA finals in the previous season, leads 4-3 in her head-to-head record with Kostyuk, although the latter emerged triumphant from their only meeting of 2025 so far, winning 6-4, 6-2 at the Italian Open.

However, Kasatkina has won her last two matches against the Ukrainian on hard court, the most recent of which was a 6-3, 6-4 success at the Brisbane Open in January last year.

While the 28-year-old prefers clay courts, and Kostyuk is more adept on hard, Kasatkina has been superior on this surface in their last two contests, and has made the quarter-finals twice before in Monreal, most recently in 2023, whereas her next opponent has a 0-1 record in the city, losing 2-6, 6-1, 3-6 to Qinwen Zheng in her only previous match here two years ago.

At 5/4, Kasatkina is worth backing to reach the third round, in my opinion.

Total Games - Over 21.5 in Cori 'Coco' Gauff (USA) vs Veronika Kudermetova (Wrl) @ 5/4

Coco Gauff lost in her opening match of the Berlin Open and Wimbledon, suffering straight-set defeats to Wang Xinyu (3-6, 3-6) and Dayana Yastremska (6-7, 1-6), respectively, and the American came close to a third successive defeat on Wednesday, forced to a tiebreak in the final set of her victory over compatriot Danielle Collins (7-5, 4-6, 7-6) in a match that was four minutes away from the three-hour mark.

It was a tough slog for the 21-year-old, but she emerged triumphant in Montreal, setting up a third-round tie with Veronika Kudermetova, who overcame Cristina Bucsa (5-7, 6-2, 7-5) in the first round on Sunday before beating Olga Danilovic (6-4, 6-2) two days later.

The Russian will know that she will have to raise her game further to knock out the number one seed and World No.2 on Thursday, but she should be encouraged by Gauff's performance against Collins. The 2025 French Open champion recorded 23 double-faults and committed 74 unforced errors on Wednesday, and similar statistics are likely to be punished by Kudermetova.

Gauff boasts a 2-1 record against the 28-year-old, but it's all equal on hard courts, with the World No. 42 triumphing 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in their first meeting on the surface in Doha in February 2023.

Their second head-to-head, on clay (indoor) in Stuttgart in April of that year, saw 31 games played as Gauff won 6-2, 4-6, 7-6, while Kudermetova forced her opponent to a tiebreak in the first set of a 6-7, 2-6 defeat in Beijing in their third meeting of 2023, falling just short of the 22 required for this above selection to land on Thursday.

I can see Gauff against Kudermetova going to three sets for a third time in four contests this week, and even if there are just two sets, I expect them to be highly competitive with a tiebreak or two certainly possible, so over 21.5 total games takes my fancy at 5/4.

Total Games - Over 23.5 in Learner Tien (USA) vs Reilly Opelka (USA) @ 10/11

Learner Tien has enjoyed a positive first season on the main tour and has made a great start to this hard-court swing, winning four of his five matches so far, all in straight sets.

The 19-year-old beat Emilio Nava (6-1, 6-4) and Andrey Rublev (7-5, 6-2) at the Washington Open last week, only falling to eventual runner-up Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (2-6, 2-6) in the last 16.

Tien has taken his form to Toronto, knocking out Colton Smith (6-4, 7-5) and Denis Shapovalov (7-6, 7-5) in the first two rounds to set up a meeting with fellow American Reilly Opelka, who beat Sebastian Ofner (7-6, 7-5) and Tomas Machac (7-6, 6-7, 6-3) in his first couple of matches of the Canadian Open.

Opelka helped to land a 5/6 winner in Tuesday's Tennis Betting Tips, with over 23.5 total games coming in easily, as 35 were recorded.

The logic behind that tip centred on the big-serving Opelka, who is so difficult to break. The 6ft 11in ace has now seen over 23.5 games land in five of his last six matches, while Tien, despite securing a straight-sets success against Shapovalov on Wednesday, was taken to 25 games by the Canadian, winning a tiebreaker in the first set before breaking in the 11th game of the second.

I'm predicting a highly competitive contest in Toronto on Thursday, with former American No. 1 Opelka reaching his career-best Masters results during his only previous appearance there in 2021, when he finished as runner-up to Daniil Medvedev.

Tien, meanwhile, has a 67-16 career record against fellow Americans, and in June, beat current World No. 7 Ben Shelton (6-4, 7-6) at the Mallorca Championships.

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