Popyrin – Draper: 17.02.2025 17:00 CEST<\/strong> Alexei Popyrin has lost four straight matches. So far this season, Alexei played in only three tournaments and exited in the opening round each time. His last match was in Rotterdam, losing in the opening round against Lehecka in straight sets. His previous win happened last season in Paris. He has been winless for almost four months. It is his third appearance in Doha. Last season, Popyrin lost against Khachanov in the semifinals in straight sets.<\/p>\n Jack Draper has won three of his last five matches. So far this season, Draper has only played at the Australian Open. He retired in the 1\/8-Finals against Alcaraz after losing the second set 1-6. Jack had his off-season ruined by a hip injury. He played three five-setters in Melbourne and eventually retired because he was out of fuel against Alcaraz. Last year around this time, Draper played in Los Cabos, losing in the opening round against Kokkinakis in three tight sets.<\/p>\n According to the bookies, Draper is the favorite in this matchup, but we disagree. Both players have not played many competitive matches this season. Popyrin had a decent run last year in Doha, and Draper has had injury problems for the last couple of weeks. We expect a tight match that could go either way.<\/p>\n That being said, Popyrin covering the games handicap is a value bet.<\/strong><\/p>\n Value bet\/ the best odds: Alexei Popyrin +2.5 games handicap @2.00 @bet365<\/strong><\/p>\n Alcaraz – Cilic: 17.02.2025 15:30 CEST<\/strong> Carlos Alcaraz has won five straight matches. Two weeks ago in Rotterdam, Carlos won the title, winning against de Minaur in the final as we predicted. So far this season, Carlos has played only two tournaments. Carlos reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, losing against Djokovic in four tight sets. Around this time last year, Carlos skipped all tournaments between the Australian Open and Indian Wells.<\/p>\n Marin Cilic has lost four of his last five matches. The last match he played was last season in Belgrade, losing against Lehecka in the second round. This will be his first match of the season. It is his second appearance in Doha. The former world number three played here in 2022, losing against Khachanov in the quarterfinals in three tight sets. Around this time last year, Cilic was injured and skipped most of the season.<\/p>\n According to the bookies, Alcaraz is the big favorite in this matchup, and we partially agree. Carlos has played well this season so far. On the other hand, Cilic has not played any competitive matches since November 2024. However, Marin prepared well and looked healthy in his training sessions. Cilic has a big serve and heavy forehand, and we expect him to hold his service games easily. We believe Alcaraz will eventually win, but Cilic will put up a big fight.<\/p>\n That being said, Cilic covering the games handicap is a value bet.<\/strong><\/p>\n Value bet\/ the best odds: Marin Cilic +5.5 games handicap @2.10 @bet365<\/p>\n <\/strong>Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ATP 500 Doha 1\/16-Finals Popyrin – Draper: 17.02.2025 17:00 CEST H2H: first meeting Alexei Popyrin has lost four straight matches. So far this season, Alexei played in only three tournaments and exited in the opening round each time. His last match was in Rotterdam, losing in the opening round against Lehecka in straight sets. His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5045,"featured_media":63989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17400],"tags":[3970,2333,5729,11131,13325,844,50,22,1658],"class_list":["post-79944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","tag-alexei-popyrin","tag-atp-doha","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-jack-draper","tag-jiri-lehecka","tag-karen-khachanov","tag-marin-cilic","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-thanasi-kokkinakis"],"modified_by":"David Barisic","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5045"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79945,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79944\/revisions\/79945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nH2H: first meeting<\/strong><\/p>\nBest Bet to Make<\/h2>\n
\nH2H: 3-1<\/strong><\/p>\nBest Bet to Make<\/h2>\n