On Tuesday, world No. 79 Holger Rune takes on world No. 30 Aslan Karatsev in the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. This match might not be on the minds of many tennis fans, but bettors should always look at the whole slate for the best value. And considering the way both of these players are performing at the moment, backing Rune could be the best bet on the entire board.
While Karatsev is probably the better all-around player, he has been struggling to find his game of late. Coming into this match, Karatsev has lost seven of his last nine matches—and in four of those, he didn’t even end up winning a set. The Russian also hasn’t played in a clay-court match since last year’s French Open, and this just isn’t his best surface to begin with.
The 18-year-old Rune needed to go through qualifiers to get into this tournament, but he won both of his matches in straight sets—and now has a seven-match winning streak on clay. He has also played 10 matches on the dirt this season, which should mean that he’ll be a lot more comfortable than Karatsev in this environment.