ATP 500 Acapulco Open: Betting odds, picks, how to watch, more
The Acapulco Open is an outdoor hard court tournament held in Acapulco, Mexico. It had previously been played in Mexico City from 1993 to 1998 and was also played on outdoor red clay courts until 2013. The Acapulco Open is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the ATP Tour, which means that 500 points are awarded to the winner of the tournament.
This year’s Acapulco Open features 32 players, including Americans Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, J.J. Wolf, John Isner, and Taylor Fritz, fresh off of his title at the Delray Beach Open.
This year’s tournament has a strong lineup of players including Carlos Alcaraz, who was number one in the world until a recent injury allowed Novak Djokovic to surpass him. The Spanish player is coming to Acapulco hoping to do what his compatriot Nadal did last year and raise the trophy.
Even though Nadal won’t be back at the Acapulco Open this year, there are plenty of other highly ranked players, like Stefanos Tsitsipas, who played in the final the year before, Casper Ruud, Holger Rune, Cameron Norrie, and Matteo Berrettini.
There will be nine Americans in the field, including the names mentioned above plus Brandon Nakashima, Marcus Giron, Mackenzie McDonald, Michael Mmoh, and rising star Ben Shelton. Sebastian Korda had been entered into the draw but had to pull out with a wrist injury.
Schedule
The full schedule of the Acapulco Open is:
- Qualifying – February 25-6, 2023
- Round 1 – February 27-28, 2023
- Round 2 – March 1, 2023
- Quarterfinal – March 2, 2023
- Semifinal – March 3, 2023
- Final – March 4, 2023
How to Watch the Acapulco Open:
- Acapulco Open matches can also be streamed live or on-demand on Tennistv.com at a monthly subscription fee of $14.99
All matches can also be streamed on tennistream.com
Best Bets for Acapulco Open
Carlos Alcaraz (+187) to win the tournament
The argument for betting on Alcaraz is simple: he’s maybe the best player in tennis. With Novak Djokovic not in this tournament, Alcaraz is clearly the best player at the Acapulco Open. He could certainly get tripped up along the way, but he’s 8-1 in 2023 and coming off a trip to the finals at the Rio Open where he lost in three sets to 13th-ranked Cameron Norrie after he had beaten Norrie in straight sets in the finals at Buenos Aires.
Alcaraz shouldn’t be truly tested until facing (potentially) Tommy Paul in the quarterfinals, so he’s one of the safer bets in the field, but also the lowest odds.
Frances Tiafoe (+1200) to win the tournament
Taylor Fritz may be the American most people want to bet on given that he just won the Delray Beach Open, but he gets John Isner in the first round and that’s the exact type of match Fritz has struggled to win in his ascent up the rankings. If Fritz does drop that match, Tiafoe would need to beat one of Isner, Denis Shapovalov, or Miomir Kecmanovic to reach a semi-final showdown against Alcaraz.
While that semi-final match seems daunting, Tiafoe played Alcaraz well in the semi-finals at the U.S. Open, losing in five sets, and could give the Spaniard another run for his money on the hard courts. Tiafoe is 8-2 to start 2023 with respectable losses against J.J. Wolf and Karen Khachanov, but he needs to break through at some point. Perhaps this is the tournament?
Holger Rune (+450) to win his quarter
The reason you’re getting longer odds on this than you’d think is because Rune is in a quarter with Cameron Norrie, who, as I mentioned above, just beat Alcaraz in Rio. However, Norrie has also already played 21 matches in 2023 and is bound to feel the fatigue at some point. He could slip up in the second round against Matteo Berrettini or the quarter-finals against Rune, who is 8-4 to start the year and looking to return to good health after retiring in his second-round match in Rotterdam,
J.J. Wolf (+550) to win his quarter
The odds are long here because Wolf is in a quarter with Casper Ruud, who’s the 4th-ranked player in the world, but Ruud is also just 2-3 to start 2023 and lost to American Jenson Brooksby at the Australian Open in January. For his career, he has a .569 winning percentage on hard courts and a .728 winning percentage on clay. I think the big serve of Wolf will give him a chance to upset Ruud in the second round and move through to a quarter-final showdown with Alex de Minaur that I also think he can win.
