Ho hum, the Aces are a perfect 8-0 at the Cincinnati event. Did you hear me?! 8-0 is a great run and we have a fellow staff member sweating a $5,000 takedown as yesterday’s matches finish later today. Now let’s try and make this “great” run an “insane” one and I promise you I will continue not to play it safe. Are you pumped up yet? Good. Tennis is getting more and more popular within the DFS Army.
For Tennis, I use an odds-based approach, mixing in current form and playing surface history. This article will be free for now and probably move to VIP only when the U.S. Open starts. That’s no reason to wait to become a VIP member with baseball in full swing and football around the corner…not to mention that signing up now locks in your price for Become a VIP and use code SNIPER to get a 10% discount automatically applied to your account each and every month.
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MY TENNIS ACES FOR AUGUST 16
Slate Locks at 11:00 am ET
Roger Federer ($11,200) – Just because I’m feeling a little defensive, I very rarely write up the most expensive player on the slate. As we get deeper into tournaments the skill level tends to bunch up and Federer offers some much needed safety today. Of course the problem is fitting his salary but as I mentioned there are good players (in tough matchups) who are cheap. A common construction will be to load up on the mid tier but Federer’s -1250 odds shouldn’t be totally forgotten about.
Stanislas Wawrinka ($8,500) – Now I’ll get to the mid range but keep with the Swiss theme. Wawrinka appears to be returning to his elite form and will be a -250 favorite against Marton Fucsovics. Fucsovics has played three-sets each of the last two days while Wawrinka knocked off Kei Nishikori yesterday 2-0 to win his fourth match in his last five outings. Wawrinka also took down Fucsovics 1-6, 7-6, 7-6 just last week, a result that should give him plenty of confidence heading into the rematch.
Ekaterina Makarova ($7,900) – What, those two picks were too safe? Well let’s get to the risky part of the daily Aces article as we go below $8,000 with Makarova. The Russian demolished Alize Cornet 6-2, 6-0 yesterday an gets Lesia Tsurenko today as -143 favorite. Makarova has won both hard court meetings between the two and Tsurenko also has a lingering injury she’s been dealing with that caused her to withdraw mid-match last week. There’s some volatility at this level of women’s tennis but Makarova makes for an intriguing GPP play on Thursday.
Karen Khacanov ($5,600) – Swiss and Russians is the theme of the day but we get some massive odds value with Khacanov price tag compared to his +145 odds. The Russian has won six of seven with the one loss including a tiebreaker versus Rafael Nadal. On the other hand, Marin Cilic put plenty of fear into DFSers yesterday before pulling out a three-set win. This is only Cilic’s second tournament since March and I suspect he’s still rounding into form. All of this sets up well for our $5,600 punt to make things interesting.
That’s it guys and girls! Please jump into Slack and find me to talk about the slate and definitely let me know how we can improve our Tennis coverage at DFS Army. If you’re not a VIP member with access to Slack Chat, join today and use code SNIPER for 10% off! It’s a new DFS game and I look forward to watching it evolve with the rest of you.