Lajovic – Dzumhur: 18.02.2025 Time TBA<\/strong> Dusan Lajovic has lost four of his last five matches. So far this season, Dusan has not succeeded on hard courts. Last week in Buenos Aires, Lajovic lost in the second round against Zverev in straight sets, as we had predicted. However, Dusan put up a big fight and played well. It was his first clay court tournament of the season. It is his eleventh appearance in Rio de Janeiro. Last year in Rio, Dusan reached the quarterfinals, losing against Cerundolo in three tight sets.<\/p>\n Damir Dzumhur has won three of his last five matches. Last week in Buenos Aires, Damir lost in the opening round against Martinez in three sets after winning the opening set 6-0. A week before, Damir prepared in Rosario at the Challenger tournament, losing against Ficovich in straight sets in the second round. Around this time last year, Dzumhur played in Doha, failing to qualify for the main draw tournament.<\/p>\n According to the bookies, Lajovic is the favorite in this matchup, and we agree. Dusan is a better clay-court player than Dzumhur. He played well last week against Zverev in Buenos Aires, and we expect him to continue playing well. We expect him to be a better player on the court and win.<\/p>\n That being said, Lajovic winning is a value bet.<\/strong><\/p>\n Value bet\/ the best odds: Dusan Lajovic winning @1.50 @bet365<\/strong><\/p>\n Zverev – Bu: 18.02.2025 Time TBA<\/strong> Alexander Zverev has won three of his last five matches. In his opening clay court tournament, Sascha underperformed. Last week in Buenos Aires, Cerundolo, as we predicted, upset Zverev in the quarterfinals in three sets. Sascha reached the final at the Australian Open at the beginning of the season, losing against Zverev in straight sets as we predicted. Last season, Zverev played well on clay. He reached the final at the French Open and won the Masters 1000 title in Rome.<\/p>\n Yunchaokete Bu has lost three of his last five matches. Last week in Delray Beach, Bu lost against Fritz in the second round in straight sets. His last clay court match was in Mai 2024 at the French Open. But Bu is a solid Chinese player who thrives on fast, hard courts. He has never had any success on clay courts. Last season, Bu spent most of the time playing on the hard courts. He has played only five clay court matches and has a winning 3-2 record.<\/p>\n According to the bookies, Zverev is the big favorite in this matchup, and we agree. Zverev is the first seed in Rio de Janeiro this week and the biggest favorite to win the title. Looking at the draw, we expect him to win the title this week without any problems. On the other hand, Bu never succeeded in clay courts and rarely played on clay. We expect Zverev to dominate from the start until the end and win easily.<\/p>\n That being said, Zverev covering the games handicap is a value bet.<\/strong><\/p>\n Value bet\/ the best odds: Alexander Zverev -6.5 games handicap @2.10 @bet365<\/p>\n <\/strong>Main Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ATP 500 Rio de Janeiro 1\/16-Finals Lajovic – Dzumhur: 18.02.2025 Time TBA H2H: 1-0 Dusan Lajovic has lost four of his last five matches. So far this season, Dusan has not succeeded on hard courts. Last week in Buenos Aires, Lajovic lost in the second round against Zverev in straight sets, as we had predicted. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5045,"featured_media":74186,"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":[85,18640,2182,2070,10623,347,42388],"class_list":["post-79963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-atp-rio-de-janeiro","tag-damir-dzumhur","tag-dusan-lajovic","tag-francisco-cerundolo","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-yunchaokete-bu"],"modified_by":"David Barisic","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79963","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=79963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79964,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79963\/revisions\/79964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nH2H: 1-0<\/strong><\/p>\nBest Bet to Make<\/h2>\n
\nH2H: first meeting<\/strong><\/p>\nBest Bet to Make<\/h2>\n