The Internazionali BNL d’Italia had many surprises this year and this Sunday it will close its 80th edition with four very even finals where anything can happen.
Masters 1000 Rome: women’s singles
Let’s start with the women. Iga Swiatek arrived as the number 1 and great favorite at this tournament after her title in Stuttgart and her final in Madrid, in addition to having won the last two titles in Rome. She started very well in the Italian capital, winning the first 3 games, each one in 2 sets, but in the quarterfinals, she was injured in her game against Elena Rybakina (sixth in the world) when they were 2-2 in the third set and retired. Now it is a doubt for Roland Garros.
On the Kazakh side, in the semifinals she beat Jelena Ostapenko in a game with controversy since the Latvian was winning 4-1 in the second set, then Rybakina put the set 4-2 and it started to rain lightly, so the current Wimbledon champion asked to stop the game, something that her rival did not like. Upon returning, Rybakina kept the next 4 games, winning the match, and when they greeted each other at the end, Ostapenko told her “You’re a bitch.”
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In the final, her rival will be the Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina, who defeated the Russian Veronika Kudermetova in the semifinals in a game that was much more than just a tennis match. Kalinina prevailed 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 to reach her first WTA 1000 final.
But if there was an insult in the “greeting” on the net of the game between Rybakina and Ostapenko, in this game there was not even a greeting. When asked about this fact, Kalinina explained that it is due to the political situation and war between the two countries.
This will be the second time that Rybakina and Kalinina have met. The first was last year on the green clay of Charleston, and the Ukrainian prevailed with partials of 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Update:
The Kazakh ended up as the champion after winning two sets 6-4,1-0 and their rival got an injury.
Masters 1000 Rome: men’s singles
When:
May 21, at 10:00 am ET
Betting odds:
Holger Rune -140
Daniil Medvedev +120
Where can I watch it?
On the men’s side, it was a tournament with many surprises, with the elimination in the first rounds of big favorites like Carlos Alcaraz, who was predicted to be the champion.
The young Holger Rune has shown that he is called to fight among the top in this new era of the ATP and eliminated Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals (6-2, 4-6, 6-2) and Casper Ruud in the semifinals. (6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-2), removing two top 5 players in less than a week and has 7 straight wins against the top 5 players and a 13-9 record versus the top 10 players.
This is Rune’s third Masters 1000 final, where he won last year in Paris and lost this year in Monte Carlo.
His rival will be the Russian Daniil Medvedev, number 3 in the world, who in a long and interrupted game defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas (5) with a double 7-5.
The game had to stop twice in Rome due to rain, which means a very favorable advantage for Rune, who will be much more rested than Medvedev.
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It was a great battle between two great tennis players who already have their own story, full of discussions and fights. Right after finishing, Medvedev danced as Tsitsipas had done last year when he eliminated the Russians in Cincinnati. Daniil has only lost 1 set in this tournament.
This will be the ninth Masters 1000 final for Medvedev and the first in Rome and on clay, since the previous ones were in Cincinnati, Shanghai, Toronto, Miami, Montreal, Indian Wells, and twice in Paris. He was champion on 5 occasions and in 2023 he won the title in Miami but lost in Indian Wells.
It will be the second time that these two tennis players meet after they did so a little over a month ago, in the quarterfinals of Monte Carlo, where Rune won with partial scores of 6-3 and 6-4.
Go for a victory for Holger Rune at -140. If you bet $100 on a win at such odds you could get $71.43 for a total payout of $171.43.
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