Tennis Betting Advice - August 2021
WTA Cleveland - Ones to Watch at 16/1...
Monday 23rd August 2021
In Ones to Watch today:
Jil makes a big run…
Back in March, we backed Jil Belen Teichmann at 300/1 Each Way for the WTA 1000 event in Miami. That week, the Swiss ended up dropping out injured in the 1st round…
Last week, Teichmann made a big-odds run at a WTA 1000 tournament. Taking advantage of a Cincinnati draw that saw Simona Halep pull out injured, and beating superstar Naomi Osaka along the way.
Teichmann went all the way to the final, from pre-tournament prices of 200/1. She finished runner-up to world no.1, Ash Barty, and injury was rearing its head again in the final. The unseeded Swiss player ended the match with one foot very heavily strapped-up, after a lengthy medical timeout.
Let’s see how Jil Belen Teichmann turns up in the next few days. As I write, the 24-year-old is scheduled to stay in Ohio this week for the smaller, WTA 250 event in Cleveland. In fact, Jil is due to play this evening in the 1st round, against Anna Blinkova. Judging by last night’s outlook, and with that big week in Cincinnati taking its toll, I’d be surprised to see Teichmann do much in Cleveland – if she plays at all.
The US Open is a different beast though. The last Major of the year starts exactly a week from today. I’ve always fancied Teichmann as a decent underdog. She looks to have the knack of raising her game for the big matches. Injury-depending (and that’s a significant ‘if’), Jil could be one for us to look out for at outsider odds when the draw is made for New York. Right now, not many bookies have priced her up. Unibet are 90/1, and Bet365 go 66/1. We’ll wait and see with this one.
The week before the Big Apple…
Onto this week’s tennis now, and the tournaments the week before a Grand Slam are always worth approaching from an underdog perspective. The biggest names are either sitting it out in preparation for the main event next week, or they are vulnerable favourites – with one eye on the upcoming Major, and preserving their fitness being the number-one priority.
Casting an eye over the initial drawsheets for the 250-grade events this week – WTA Cleveland, WTA Chicago, and ATP Winston-Salem – there have already been a handful of withdrawals. For example, Nick Kyrgios pulled out at late notice v Andy Murray in round one in Winston-Salem last night, citing a knee injury.
Taking that men’s event as an example, the last five renewals of ATP Winston-Salem have seen finalists at 16/1 (won), 33/1 (won), 100/1 (runner-up), 50/1 (won), 100/1 (runner-up).
Ones to Watch in Cleveland…
This week’s women’s tournaments in Cleveland and Chicago are both making their debut appearances on the WTA Tour calendar. As such, there are no past winners and odds to refer to.
But I can tell you that last year – with the 2020 schedule jumbled up due to the pandemic – the women’s events in the fortnight immediately before the US Open produced a 66/1 winner, and also a 66/1 runner-up. The former being Victoria Azarenka in Cincinnati, and the latter, the aforementioned Jil Belen Teichmann, in Lexington.
In 2019, the week before the US Open saw a 50/1 winner on the WTA Tour, at the 250-level event (then known as ‘International’ grade) at the Bronx Open, New York. The trophy winner there was Magda Linette. A player we last backed at 33/1, also on the North American hard courts, at WTA Lexington in August of last year.
At the start of 2020, before coronavirus shut down the tour, the Pole won a second career WTA title at this level. Lifting the trophy on hard courts at Hua Hin in Thailand, at 14/1.
Linette can be backed at 12/1 in general for the WTA Cleveland title this week, with a standout 16/1 & 14/1 available with a couple of firms (see below).
The opposite half of the Cleveland draw features three players that we’ve backed at massive odds in bigger tournaments recently. Shelby Rogers (12/1 in general) and Katerina Siniakova (12/1) play each other in the 1st round. Elsewhere on this side of the draw, Sara Sorribes Tormo is the one I like, also trading at 12/1 in most places, and top prices of 16/1 and 14/1.
We backed the Spaniard at 66/1 at the Olympics this summer, then again at 80/1 at the WTA 1000 event in Montreal (quarter finals). As I said in those two write-ups, Sorribes Tormo is having the best season of her career, including a maiden WTA title-win on hard courts, and she’s one of the toughest competitors on the tour right now.
To get the ball rolling for us in the States in the week before the US Open, those two double-figure picks are my selections for the women’s tournament in Cleveland.
Today’s matches start from 3pm UK time, and bookies will take down their Outright Winner markets during play. You can watch the action, live on Amazon Prime Video. Some bookies call this tournament by its non-WTA name, ‘Tennis in the Land.’
Ones to Watch
WTA Cleveland – Tennis in the Land
Outright Winner – Each Way
Each Way terms: 1/2 odds 1-2 places.
I’ll be back throughout the week, as we prepare for the US Open which starts next Monday.
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson