Tennis Picks Today for February 1st: Free Tennis Picks for Potapova vs Cocciaretto and Ostapenko vs Tauson

Tennis Picks Today: February 1st

1. Potapova vs Cocciaretto: Potapova -3 games
2. Ostapenko vs Tauson: Ostapenko to win

Tough final two days of January for our written previews, as all four of the players we backed looked slow and were never competitive.

For Thursday’s previews, we’ll stick with the WTA event in Austria, with both matches coming from the Upper Austria Ladies Linz. Let’s look more at Anastasia Potapova vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Jelena Ostapenko vs Clara Tauson.

For more daily tennis tips, visit the bettingexpert community, but if you want more expert tips from Jon Reid, visit our Expert Insights section.

In this article:

• Anastasia Potapova vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto Expert Tip
• Anastasia Potapova Recent Form
• Elisabetta Cocciaretto Recent Form
• Anastasia Potapova vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto H2H Stat of the Match
• Jelena Ostapenko vs Clara Tauson Expert Tip
• Jelena Ostapenko Recent Form
• Clara Tauson Recent Form
• Jelena Ostapenko vs Clara Tauson H2H Stat of the Match
• Safer Gambling

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Anastasia Potapova vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto (Upper Austria Ladies Linz) Free Pick: Russian in Strong Position to Eliminate Another Italian Opponent

• Pick: Potapova -2.50 games
• Best Odds: 1.80
• Bookmaker: Pinnacle
• Stakes: 3/10

Odds as at 3:00 am UK Time on February 1st, 2024. Odds may now differ.

Go with our tip at bet365I would be more hesitant to back Potapova if she had been coming off the Australian summer of tennis without having much success and having struggled physically. The fact she’s played a match here and beaten Sara Errani in straight sets though is reassuring.

Now, Errani is far from being a hard courter by trade, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the concerns with Potapova entering this week were more physical than concerns about her actual game. Errani is someone who will make you play a lot of balls and push you physically, so from that standpoint, it’s a solid win for Potapova.

Now she takes on another Italian in Cocciaretto who has more offensive capability to bring to the table, but she’s not close to being able to generate the power or aggression that Potapova is.

With the courts playing decently quickly so far in Linz, I’m happier to back the bigger hitter who should find more easy points on serve in this one.

Read on for more Expert Insights.

Anastasia Potapova Recent Form

It’s tough to really evaluate the form of Potapova at the moment. She was hurt and retired in a match against Elena Rybakina in Brisbane and then that appeared to carry over when she lost in her first match in Melbourne at the Australian Open (she also withdrew from her second warmup tournament for that grand slam).

Prior to that, however, she put up a pair of nice wins against Veronika Kudermetova and the always-scrappy Daria Saville.

This week is her chance to set things straight and get back on track and she is on the right track with that win over Errani.

Cocciaretto could pose a few more questions of her, but the serve is still likely to be vulnerable, she doesn’t really possess the weapons to trouble Potapova from the baseline and the Russian should be in charge of the majority of baseline exchanges.

This should come down to how many unforced errors Potapova hits. If she limits that number, she should be able to pass through to the quarterfinals without many issues.

Elisabetta Cocciaretto Recent Form

Hasn’t been the greatest start to 2024 for Cocciaretto. That makes sense, considering we begin with quicker courts for the first few months of the season.

While she made a run in Australia last year, she hasn’t typically fared that well when she has less time to set up her shots.

This season has seen her beat fellow Italian and a rather weaponless Lucrezia Stefanini (last round at this tournament) and Lulu Sun (first round of the Australian Open). Needless to say, neither of those women comes remotely close to the level of competition she’s tasked with on Thursday in Potapova.

Though the world No. 60 may often beat players who are ranked lower than her and that she should beat, I’m not sold on her ability to beat some of the top 25 that hit with power in quicker conditions just yet.

Anastasia Potapova vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto H2H – Stat of the Match

These two split their previous two encounters with Potapova having won last year in straight sets in Rome, while Cocciaretto crushed her when she was erratic in the thinner air of Guadalajara back in 2022.

It does really show just how important consistency and controlled aggression is for Potapova. When she’s able to hit big and do so in a sustainable manner, she can beat Cocciaretto in even the slowest conditions. When she can’t and she’s not able to keep control of that power, she isn’t tough to outlast.

Given the conditions lending themselves to shorter points and rewarding power in Linz, we should see Potapova cover the handicap here more often than not.

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Jelena Ostapenko vs Clara Tauson (Upper Austria Ladies Linz) Free Pick: Ostapenko to Keep Hot Start to 2024 Going

• Pick: Ostapenko to win
• Best Odds: 1.72
• Bookmaker: bet365
• Stakes: 4/10

Odds as at 3:00 am UK Time on February 1st, 2024. Odds may now differ.

Go with our tip at bet365I’m not sure why the market loves Tauson so much in this spot. Perhaps people are riding a narrative (never a great idea by the way) of Ostapenko coming off a strong Australian summer and potentially having a letdown here?

To me, that requires an assumption I’m just not willing to make. We saw the market back Erika Andreeva against a semifinalist from the year’s first major on Wednesday, and that didn’t work out as Dayana Yastremska powered past her in three sets.

Ostapenko has displayed much better controlled aggression this year and she’s shown far fewer issues physically on the court so far relative to Tauson. As hot-and-cold as her game can be for stretches, she is the more refined player with a much higher pedigree.

Read on for more expert insights.

Jelena Ostapenko Recent Form

If your name isn’t Victoria Azarenka, then you haven’t beaten Ostapenko in the early stages of the 2024 campaign.

The 26-year-old world No. 12 has already picked up a 500-level title in Adelaide and also made the quarterfinals in Brisbane.

Her first serve has come as close as I’ve seen it so far this season to matching her unbridled power and aggression from the baseline and there is no one in women’s tennis I’d rather back than the Latvian when it comes to returning against other players’ second serves.

The surprising part of her season for me has come down to her second serve. Normally a rather glaring vulnerability in the 26-year-old’s game, this season she’s won about 47% of those points – a number that is good enough for her, considering how strong the rest of her game is.

She should be well prepared to take on another power player as well, considering she’s already played the likes of Azarenka (twice), Marta Kostyuk, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Karolina Pliskova, Camila Giorgi and Caroline Garcia. Outside of the two losses to Azarenka, she’s handled them all, clearing most of them by a decent margin.

I’ll take her here against another decent ball striker who simply hasn’t proven all that much yet and has struggled physically in the past.

Clara Tauson Recent Form

Tauson has started the season 7-2, which is a pretty encouraging sign, but her wins do leave something to be desired.

Her best win of the year so far has come against Giorgi, who has been pretty poor dating all the way back to last summer. Even that came from a set down and required Giorgi to completely lose the plot in the third set. She also looked as though she was breaking down physically.

Things don’t get much easier on Thursday, and this is easily the best (and most in form) player she’s played to this point in 2024.

Her game consists of a huge first serve and punishing groundstrokes, but she can also get very erratic and her court coverage and movement are not strengths of hers.

I’m not sold on a relatively fresh and in-form Ostapenko only being a slight favourite against her in this specific spot.

Jelena Ostapenko vs Clara Tauson H2H – Stat of the Match

It’s been several years since these two have played, with Tauson winning the lone match between them in Luxembourg back in 2021 indoors.

Since then, we’ve seen the Dane plagued by injuries and physically seems to have failed to really remedy some of the things that have troubled her in the past.

I’m not overly concerned by a close loss that took place several years ago.

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SAFER GAMBLING

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