ATP Newport Tips: Back Isner to serve up post-Wimbledon win

Dan Weston
12 July 2022
3:00 min read

Dan is backing Isner at Newport

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Following a thrilling fortnight at Wimbledon, the ATP Tour heads to Bastad, Sweden and Newport, USA where Dan Weston is backing a big-serving American to do the business...

"Isner has won the tournament four times in the last nine editions."

Back John Isner to win ATP Newport at around 6.05/1

In an ideal world, I wouldn't write a preview on Tuesday morning for this week's tournaments, but qualifiers for both events only concluded last night and given the relatively high calibre of players in those quailes - particularly in Bastad - it made sense to wait until the entire main draw is known.

Grass tennis continues in Newport, USA, which is a tournament I always find odd given that it takes place after the premier grass court event of the season, Wimbledon.

Still, there's an interesting field and historical data suggests that conditions will play slightly slower than at SW19, although should still be of positive benefit to big-servers, as is typical on grass.

Four-time winner Isner the pick

There's plenty of those in the field - Maxime Cressy, John Isner, Sam Querrey, Feliciano Lopez and Tim Van Rijthoven to name just a few - which means that there could be an opportunity for bettors this week to avail themselves of the over 12.5 game market in the match betting, for clashes involving two serve-oriented players.

It also means that the tournament is likely to be high-variance, with fine margins - single break sets and tiebreaks - likely to decide plenty.

Personally, I'm not convinced of the merits of Felix Auger-Aliassime as the 4.216/5 tournament favourite, or Andy Murray at [7.0 ] third favourite. The last five winners have all been big-servers and the 6th last, Rajeev Ram, was a grass court specialist. Isner has won the tournament four times in the last nine editions.

Andy Murray practising 1280x720.jpg

Given that Peter Gojowcyzk has done Isner a huge favour by beating Ugo Humbert in the bottom quarter of the draw, second seed Isner looks to have a rather straightforward path to the semi-finals.

Another factor in the American's favour is the decent level he showed at Wimbledon, particularly when defeating Murray. Isner at around 6.05/1 looks the pick here.

Ruud strong favourite in Bastad

Over in Bastad, Casper Ruud is the favourite at 2.77/4 and the Norwegian is clearly the best player in the field on the relatively slow clay conditions anticipated. Throw in a first round bye and a pretty reasonable top quarter of the draw too, and you can see why the market is keen on his chances.

Threats will come from the winner of quarter two, which is likely to be either Diego Schwartzman or Pablo Carreno-Busta.

Quarter three is competitive - Sebastian Baez, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Roberto Bautista-Agut all will have chances - and also features Dominic Thiem as he attempts to get back to winning ways after a disastrous return so far from long-term injury.

Andrey Rublev, after missing Wimbledon, headlines quarter four with some strong grass courters in the bracket - it won't be easy for him, given that Holger Rune, Laslo Djere, Fernando Coria and qualifier Federico Delbonis all have good pedigree on clay and will also fancy their chances of a strong run in the coming week.