Saturday Olympic Tennis
Lorenzo Musetti ML (-120)
Keeping this super simple and attempting not to over think this, taking Musetti because he is the better tennis player.
Lorenzo may have lost to Novak in two sets but he has impressed throughout this tournament, winning his first four matches all in two sets, beating Taylor Fritz in the third round and Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals. Two guys whole rank 12th and 4th on the ATP. Although young, just 22 years old age Musetti has a respectable 12-5 record at Roland Garros, combining his French Open and Olympic matches.
Musetti is just 2-3 lifetime against Aliassime but he holds a 2-1 record head to head on clay. I wasn’t really sure I was going to bet the bronze medal match but after seeing the performance Aliassime put on against Alcaraz there was no way I wasn't going to fade him.
Whether is was a combination of bad play on the Aliassime’s end or Alcaraz just being too good but man did he look bad this morning, losing 6-1, 6-1. With just a 6-5 career record at Roland Garros I think it is safe to say more of that performance leans to the Canadian just playing poorly.
If you watched the match between Musetti and Djokovic you may be able to say that the Italian had a shot to steal a set but he didn’t serve well and wasn’t able to take advantage of break points in my opinion. This isn’t going to be a blowout by any means, I think this goes to three sets but at the end of the day Musetti is the better tennis player and has showed it throughout this tournament. I believe he gets it done and goes back home with some hardware. GL.
Krajicek/Ram ML (-136)
Simply backing the Americans because I think they are the best doubles pair in the world and have really dominated this tournemtn since the start.
As I talked about in my article earlier this week Krajicek is ranked 18th on the ATP and once the #1 player on the ATP in the summer of 2023. Ram on the other hand is ranked 5th on the ATP and was once also the #1 player in the fall of 2022. This is a incredibly talented duo, they have showed it in their accolades with a combined 5 major wins and both previously ranked the best player in the world.
They have won all four of their matches in two sets and going to a tie breaker just once. They have also won their L2 matches by a combined 14 games, just pure domination up to this finals match.
I have talked about how good the Americans are now let me discuss their opponent and why I think they will fall short of this challenge. Just like Krajicek and Ram the Australians have won all four of their matches in two sets and they present a worthy challenge for the Americans. Eden currently ranks 3rd on the ATP but his partner Peers ranks a lowly 59th, a great player back in his day (ranked #1 in 2017) but seems to have lost the battle with father time.
Although the Australian duo will put up a fight I don’t think they have what it takes to take down his American combo that not only has the talent to be the best in the world but they have the chemistry as well. we have seen them destroy Nadal and Alcaraz in the quarter finals, the most talented doubles team in the tournament and then go on to beat the Czech team 6-2, 6-2 in the semis.
No one is stopping these Americans, they go for gold tomorrow. GL.
