The twenty-first edition of ‘Round the Sports World in five minutes’ takes us to the Paris Masters in tennis for the latest edition of the Jannik Sinner/Carlos Alcaraz rivalry and to Twickenham in England, as Australia come to town for the first of the Rugby Union Autumn internationals.
Paris Masters Men’s Tennis
- Start: ongoing, final is on 2 November
- Venue: La Défense Arena, Paris
- Coverage: Sky Sports Tennis
- Fun fact: Novak Djokovic is a record breaker at the Paris Masters, to put it mildly. His records here include the most titles (7), most finals (9), most consecutive titles (3), most consecutive finals (3), most matches played (59), most matches won (50), most consecutive matches won (17), and most editions played.
Betting
Qualifying for the Paris Masters took place over the weekend, so we now know who’s in the main draw, and there are some pretty big names there. As you’d expect, it’s the same two dominating the betting, which has been the usual story in men’s tennis over the past two years or so.
In the ‘red corner’, as they say in boxing, is Carlos Alcaraz. The Spanish sensation can do no wrong at the moment. He followed up his dominant US Open final win over Janik Sinner last month with yet another tournament win, this time at the Tokyo 500 event in late September.
But Alcaraz isn’t the only contender coming into this tournament on the back of a tournament win last time out.
In the ‘blue corner’ is Janik Sinner, also available at around the 2.5 mark, who won the Vienna Open at the weekend, beating Alex Zverev 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 after overcoming cramp early on in the match. It was Sinner’s 22nd Tour-level title, his second title of the month after also winning the China Open in early October, and his fourth title of the season.
Zverev, by the way, is the defending champion in Paris. He beat home favourite Ugo Humbert in straight sets last year, 6-2, 6-2, and has been in decent form this year, proof of which was his runner-up spot to Sinner in Austria on Sunday. Despite that, you should be able to secure odds of at least 15.0 on him, and that’s not a bad price at all for a player of his pedigree.
Finally, a word on Daniil Medvedev. The Russian former World Number One had gone 882 days without a tournament win before beating Corentin Moutet last week in the Almaty Open final, his first tournament win since the 2023 Rome Master final. It was a big turnaround in fortunes for a man who didn’t win a single match at a Grand Slam this year and had a famous meltdown at the US Open last month.
Medvedev will be available at around the 40.0 mark. He’s first in action on Tuesday against Jaume Manur and is 1.4 to win the match and 1.9 to win in straight sets, odds with Betfred.
Summary
This tournament is being played at La Défense Arena for the first time, replacing the Accor Arena. It’s Europe’s largest indoor sports arena and is also used for rugby, concerts, and indoor sports, including tennis.
The change of venue and slight changes in the surface the tournament is being played on make past results less significant than usual. But we already know that Zverev won it last year, while Holger Rune and Medvedev are other past winners. But Holge misses out with injury, as does British star Jack Draper.
Who also isn’t in the draw is Novak Djokovic, and that’s quite significant because he won it on seven occasions, the last of which was in 2023. Djokovic is taking time out to deal with long-term physical issues and decided to skip this one with the bigger picture in mind.
England - Australia Rugby Union First Test
- Start: Saturday, 1 November, at 15:10
- Venue: Twickenham, England
- Coverage: Sky Sports
- Fun fact: England have called up teenage sensation Noah Caliori, who may be just 19 years old but already weighs 100 kg and is 1.94 m tall. The Saracens winger made headlines when, on making his debut for the Premiership team, he scored five tries in a 65-14 home win over Newcastle. We’ll have to wait and see if he starts on Saturday on debut, but he’s certainly one for the future and should be a key member of the English team for the next decade or so.
Betting
England go into this match as heavy favourites. They’re just 1.3 with William Hill to win the match, with Australia 3.5 and the draw, always somewhat unlikely in rugby union, available at 26.0.
In terms of other markets, you can get 1.91 on England beating Australia with a -8 handicap and 1.5 on England leading at half-time and also winning at full-time.
If you think England are going to make light work of Australia at Twickenham, then you might be interested in the 6.5 that they’ll beat Australia by 15+points.
Alternatively, if you think it’s the Aussies who are going to put in a strong performance, then you can take Australia at 1.91 with a +3.5 handicap, or Australia to win by between 1-7 points, which is 3.5.
Summary
This match marks the start of the Autumn Internationals for England, or to give it its proper name, the Quilter Nations Series 2025.
Since 2016, it’s been all England in the 12 matches played between these two, with England winning 10 of them, including two of the three played in Australia in England’s Tour back in 2022.
That run of 12 matches included some tight affairs, such as England's 44-40 win in Sydney in 2016, but also some comprehensive wins, such as the 30-6 win at Twickenham in 2017 and the 40-16 win in Japan in the quarterfinals of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
The Australian Rugby Union is going through a crisis of sorts. They suffered serious humiliation when failing to get out of the Group Stages at the 2023 World Cup and then lost 2-1 to the British Lions – made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales – in the summer of 2025. Whereas the Lions were indeed an excellent side this year, it’s also true that Australia look far from being at their best compared to yesteryear.
Further proof of their struggles is that they’re currently down in seventh in the World Rugby rankings, with Argentina one place ahead of them, and England two places, currently in fifth spot.
Still, the Wallabies won 42-37 against all odds the last time they were in Twickenham in November 2024, and they’re nothing if not resilient, so it may not be quite as straightforward as the odds suggest.
Betting Tip of the Week
A decent winner last week with our ‘both teams to score’ bet in Napoli v Inter coming good as Napoli won 3-1, at odds of 1.8.
This week we like the 2.6 that England beat Australia by 1-7 points.
Despite their struggles over the past two to three years, the Wallabies looked to have turned a corner. In August this year, they beat South Africa, the world champions and number one-ranked side in the world, no less, 38-22 away from home, a real upset. They also edged a tight contest against Argentina 28-24 in early September, so they come into this match in decent form, though they did fail to beat New Zealand in two attempts at the Rugby World Championship.
So, they’re not back to their best just yet, but could come close, ultimately falling a bit short, though. England to win by 1-7 points, it is.
