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We’re getting deeper into both tournaments going on right now in Europe; the men are into the quarterfinals at the ATP 250 in Sofia, Bulgaria, while the women are finishing the second round in Linz, Austria. With the top seed out in Bulgaria, there’s sure to be excitement as several youngsters try for their first title, while in Austria there are some top names looking to end their seasons with a bang. Let’s look at who you should consider for your fantasy tennis rosters on DraftKings.
Set your DraftKings fantasy tennis lineups here: TEN $30K Line Painter [$10K to 1st]
High-priced Options
Aryna Sabalenka ($10,600)
Sabalenka is a fine, fine play once again on Wednesday, determined to capture her third tournament in 12 tries this season in Linz. She easily hit through Jasmine Paolini in a match that was a little more lopsided than the score would indicate (Sabalenka generated 16 break points). Her return game has been on point, which is bad news for opponents when you consider her powerful serve. Stefanie Voegele ($4,400) stands across from the Belarusian after a decent win over Viktoria Kuzmova, but she lacks the power to go head-to-head with Sabalenka and lost their only encounter in 2018.
Oceane Dodin ($10,000)
Dodin has won eight matches in a row dating back to her title run at the ITF event in Reims where she beat some fairly decent competition. She boasts an impressive 72.6% win rate on her service games in her 10 main-draw matches this season, whereas Sorana Cirstea ($5,200) has really struggled in service games of late. She’s coming in off a win by retirement, so there’s not a whole lot of positives to take from her last match — and before that, she had lost three consecutive matches dating back to September 5. I don’t trust Cirstea to look sharp here, while Dodin is red hot.
Others to consider: Elise Mertens ($9,200)
Value FLEX Options
Vasek Pospisil ($8,300)
None of the men left in Sofia are highly-ranked, and none are surprises, so none are overwhelming favorites. I think Pospisil is actually the most talented of the bunch, maybe aside from Jannik Sinner ($7,700) — at the very least, he is far more talented than John Millman ($6,900). The Aussie has picked up a lot of buzz lately with his win at the ATP 250 in Nur-Sultan, but I am pumping the brakes a little bit on the hype train considering the opposition was rather weak and he hadn’t won a title before now, his age-31 season. Sure, Millman is a hard worker and a talented player, but he seemed overmatched at times by Gilles Simon in his Round 2 win. Pospisil, when fresh and healthy, has the ability to make some extraordinary shots and finish rallies with line-painting winners. I think Millman just hits too many rally balls to the Canadian here, and Pospisil will gamble on some big winners and succeed.
Salvatore Caruso ($5,800)
I’ll be the first to admit: I didn’t used to be a fan of Salvatore Caruso. I didn’t see anything special in his game, and chalked most of his bigger wins up to bad performances on the other side of the net. Well, now I’m a believer. The Italian dazzled in his second-round win over Felix Auger-Aliassime, displaying superb rally tolerance and getting almost every one of Auger-Aliassime’s above-average serves in play. Richard Gasquet ($9,000) has a sneakily super serve on indoor surfaces, so the return game will be vital for Caruso. I believe his ability in that department will give him in-roads on Gasquet’s serve, and the 34-year-old will crack.
Others to consider: Jannik Sinner ($7,700)
Set your DraftKings fantasy tennis lineups here: TEN $30K Line Painter [$10K to 1st]
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