Naomi Osaka vs Anastasia Potapova 4/29/22 Madrid Tennis Picks, Predictions, Odds

Anastasia Potapova and Naomi Osaka meet in the first round of the 2022 tennis Madrid Open.

Anastasia Potapova enters this tournament on quite a roll, as she won the Istanbul Cup and has won nine straight matches overall when you include Turkey qualifying and qualifying for this event. Potapova is easily playing some of her best tennis of her career, and she’s starting to find her stride now that she’s 21 years old. After a lot of hit or miss play and many growing pains, Potapova is becoming a player to keep an eye on and has a lot of room to keep climbing up these rankings. Potapova has won nine straight matches on clay court.

Naomi Osaka will play her first match in nearly a month after making the final in Miami. It was Osaka’s best stretch of tennis this year and could be a turning point after a lot of spotty play. Osaka has struggled with her mental health, took some time off, and she’s dropped into the 30s after being the top ranked player in the world not that long ago. At this stage, it’s really a matter of how Osaka is feeling that’s going to determine if she can be considered a title threat. Osaka is 4-3 in her career in Madrid, with pretty much no success in this tournament outside of a quarterfinal trip in 2019. Osaka has won five of her last eight matches on clay court.

There’s no match history between these two players.

Potapova is a live dog here, given this recent stretch she’s on and the fact she’s been killing it on clay. However, Osaka is rested and coming off a great tournament in Miami. I’m assuming Osaka is in a good headspace and her confidence should be up as well. Potapova also hasn’t had great success against top-rated players, and that’s the next step before she can be trusted in these spots.

Until then, give me Osaka, and I’ll take her in straight sets to shave down the price.