This article is part of our Tennis Picks series.
The first round of the Canadian Open continues Tuesday, with the men playing in Montreal and the women in Toronto. The top eight seeds in both draws have byes into the second round, but there are still plenty of high-quality matches on the docket Tuesday. Multiple former women's Grand Slam winners are in danger of exiting early Tuesday, while a few familiar faces on the men's side are poised to capitalize on favorable matchups. All Tennis Odds & Lines are taken from DraftKings Sportsbook, but you can sometimes find more favorable odds on some of these matches by checking other mobile sportsbooks such as FanDuel, BetMGM or Caesars.
All the matches at this high-profile hard court event will be best of three sets. A mix of players' previous hard court results, recent form and stylistic matchups can help pinpoint intriguing betting opportunities, both among favorites likely to cruise to victory and underdogs ready to pull off upsets. The aforementioned underdogs are highlighted in the Upset Alert section, the Lock It In section covers players who can safely be considered overwhelming favorites, while the Value Bet section recommends enticing options in matchups that are considered closer to toss-ups.
Upset Alert
Kaia Kanepi (+195) vs. Naomi Osaka
Osaka's a four-time hard court Grand Slam champion, but she hasn't been able to reach top form at any point in 2022. Between her mental health break in 2021 and Achilles injury this year, Osaka hasn't played many matches lately, and her last title of any kind was way back at the 2021 Australian Open. In her first tournament appearance since the French Open, Osaka struggled with her timing on the return of serve in last week's second-round loss to Coco Gauff at the Silicon Valley Classic. Returning Kanepi's serve won't be any easier, as the Estonian giant slayer just served up 36 aces in five matches en route to the final of the Citi Open last week.
Ajla Tomljanovic (+165) vs. Veronika Kudermetova
Like Kanepi, Tomljanovic is a dangerous floater that no top player wants to see in their section of the draw. The 72nd-ranked Aussie plays her best tennis against top competition, as evidenced by her 5-3 record against top-40 opponents over the past three months. While the 18th-ranked Kudermetova has won both of their previous encounters, their most recent match went 7-5 in the third two years ago, so Tomljanovic is certainly capable of pulling this one out despite the 54-spot difference in rankings.
Honorable Mention:
Pablo Carreno Busta (+190) vs. Matteo Berrettini
Lock It In
Yoshihito Nishioka (-205) vs. Benoit Paire
Nishioka's in his finest form of the season, as he just defeated five top-50 players at the Citi Open last week before falling to Nick Kyrgios in the final. He'll look to build on that recent momentum in a favorable first-round draw against Paire, who has fallen out of the top 100 due to a dreadful 4-20 main draw record in 2022. The 50-spot ranking gap between these two doesn't sufficiently cover the difference in their recent level of play.
David Goffin (-285) vs. Albert Ramos-Vinolas
Goffin has spent the better part of the last eight years ranked inside the top 20, and he's on his way to getting back there after falling out due to ankle and knee injuries last year. The 31-year-old Belgian has notched some impressive results the past few months, winning a clay-court title in April and reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Goffin's clean ball-striking allows him to find success on all surfaces, while his opponent plays almost exclusively on clay. In fact, Ramos-Vinolas hasn't won a main draw match on another surface all year, going 0-2 on hard courts and 0-2 on grass.
Honorable Mention:
Tommy Paul (-360) vs. Vasek Pospisil
Value Bet
Marin Cilic (-175) vs. Borna Coric
Both of these Croatians have spent less time on the court than they would have liked recently, but Cilic has been significantly more effective when available. An ill-timed bout with COVID-19 has kept Cilic sidelined since Queen's Club, where he made the semifinals on the heels of a semifinal run at the French Open. With one of the best serves on tour to go with his solid ground game, the 16th-ranked former US Open champion should be able to overpower his younger countryman, who hasn't been able to regain his pre-injury form since undergoing shoulder surgery in May of 2021. Coric has slipped to 157th in the world and is just 1-4 against top-50 opponents in 2022.
Daria Kasatkina (+110) vs. Bianca Andreescu
Andreescu will have the crowd behind her and is the more accomplished player overall, but the oft-injured Canadian has never quite been able to regain the stellar form that allowed her to capture both this title and the US Open back in 2019. She's coming off a 6-4, 6-2 first-round loss to Shelby Rogers at last week's Silicon Valley Classic, during which Andreescu appeared to be struggling with a back injury. Rogers ended up making the final of that tournament before losing to none other than Kasatkina, who also defeated world No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Paula Badosa en route to the title. Kasatkina has climbed all the way to No. 9 in the world following that title, 44 spots ahead of Andreescu, so it's surprising that the locked-in Russian's actually a modest underdog in this match.
Honorable Mention:
Gael Monfils (-180) vs. Pedro Martinez
