tennis | Thursday, December 22, 2022 9:15 AM

2023 Men’s Tennis Season-Long Future Best Bets: 3 High-Value Bets for the Upcoming Season

Jon Reid

2023 Men’s Tennis Season-Long Future Best Bets: Thursday, December 22nd

With the early looks at the first Grand Slam of the year done, we’ll look at some other decent future bets to make the rest of this week.

First up, a look at some of the bets we can make over at Unibet on different markets that will be graded at the end of the 2023 season.

It’s worth noting that because of the time frame you’re going to have to lock up your funds for, and the variance involved (think injuries at any point of an 11-month season), that these bets should be made for fun and potentially using funds separate from your tennis betting bankroll.

In this article:

2023 Men’s Tennis Season-Long Futures Preview
2023 Men’s Tennis Season-Long Futures Best Bets

2023 Men’s Tennis Season-Long Future Preview

2023 Tennis Season

With so many markets to choose from, I really want to focus on players that have a few things going for them, considering the bets are all about year-end rankings – whether that be their own finishing position, or to beat a few other players. First, I’m looking to back players whose games have surface versatility (that’s to say those that thrive on multiple surfaces). Secondly, are they ranked relatively high, but also have opportunities to gain points?

The two names that fit that profile best? Novak Djokovic and Holger Rune.

Much like the Australian Open odds for Djokovic, one would think that the best player of all time would almost never show value in terms of betting markets. Once again, however, I have to disagree. We know he’s dominant on grass. We know he’s one of the best on tour on clay. He’s also the player that’s won more Australian Open titles than any other. Finally, he’s currently sitting at No. 5 in the world and he has a lot of room to gain points. Think of it this way: in 2022, Djokovic played just one slam that awarded ranking points. He was banned from the Australian Open and U.S. Open over his vaccination status, whilst Wimbledon was stripped of ranking points over their banishment of Russian and Belarussian players. As for the French Open? He “only” made the quarterfinals, where he ran into the eventual champion and most dominant clay courter of all time in Rafael Nadal.

Not many players can say they’re currently in the top 5 with plenty of room for improvement. He may choose not to defend some of his other titles (Astana and Tel Aviv come to mind), but the tradeoff of 750 to 1,500 points for a potential 6,000 ranking points at the three Grand Slams he’ll be playing again in 2023 is more than worth it.

As for Rune, I’m happy to back him in a few respects in 2023. He, too, has surface versatility, which was on full display in the latter stages of the 2022 season, where his vastly improved serve was nearly unbreakable during a 19-2 run on indoor hard courts.

Having first come up on clay (his first really notable result on a big stage was his quarterfinal run at Roland Garros this year, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas), his improved play on hard courts is incredibly encouraging.

With very few points to defend early on in the season, he can really seize the bull by the horns and jump into a top-10 position relatively early. Even those late-season results where he’ll have to defend points isn’t the tallest of tasks. The Paris Masters will be tough as a 1,000-point event, but it’s the Masters series tournament that draws the weakest field, while the other tournaments are at the 250 or 500 level (Sofia and Stockholm being 250s and Basel being the 500).

At No. 11 in the rankings right now, with a vastly improved serve and no longer struggling physically in longer matches, I’m more than happy to back him to jump one spot in the rankings and keep it by year’s end.

2023 Men’s Tennis Season-Long Future Best Bets

So, with the above information, it’s about which markets to back to bring the most value.

For Djokovic, it’s a fairly straightforward concept of backing him to finish No. 1 at the end of 2023. There are just too many factors working in his favour – including Carlos Alcaraz having a fairly low point total for a season-ending world No. 1 in 2022 – to not see value in the 1.80 odds on offer.

Once again, with a single injury derailing this bet and the amount of time we’re locking up the money for, we won’t be hammering this bet, but I certainly think there’s value to be had.

As for the young Dane, there are a few markets I like, with all factors taken into account. From the market for him to finish top-10 to his matchup against two other players in terms of who finishes highest, I’ll be backing him in a few respects.

Selections:

Novak Djokovic to be World No. 1 as of 20 November 2023 at 1.80 odds with Unibet for 3/10 stakes.
Holger Rune to have a better singles ranking than Jannik Sinner & Denis Shapovalov on 20 November 2023 at 2.60 odds with Unibet for 2/10 stakes.
Holger Rune to be ranked inside the top 10 on 20 November 2023 at 2.10 odds with Unibet for 3/10 stakes.

Odds as at 11:00 pm on December 20th, 2022. Odds may now differ.