Tennis Betting Advice - February 2019
Ones to Watch in Acapulco – at 9/1 and 75/1…
Sunday 24th February 2019
In your Ones to Watch email today:
This week’s picks…
We’re knocking on the door again.
Our 33/1 Ones to Watch pick Anastasia Potapova fought hard to reach the WTA Budapest semi finals, but ran out of steam when it came to getting the one more win needed to reach the final and land us a place payout or better.
The teenager did us proud though. From a starting price of 33/1 (34.00), Potapova went into the semi finals at just 7/2 (4.50) for the title. Food for thought there for those of you that like to trade your Outright Winner prices.
Once again the tours produced a handful of players getting to finals at huge prices. Including 100/1 and 50/1 tournament winners. More on those prices later this week in Ones to Watch EXTRA.
Moving on to this week’s tennis and there are four tournaments on the schedule. The men are in Acapulco, Dubai and Sao Paulo. A couple of big names are back, with Roger Federer a 2/1 (3.00) favourite in Dubai and Rafael Nadal 2/1 in Acapulco. Both men are making their first appearances since the Australian Open. We’ll take a closer look at the ATP tournaments over the next day or two.
The women are also in Mexico this week, and the Outright Winner market for WTA Acapulco is where we’re making our first moves…
Ones to Watch at 9/1 and 75/1…
There have already been three WTA tournament winners aged 20 or under this year. Young players are breaking through, with a selection of 21 and 22-year-olds making impressions on the tour too (including Belinda Bencic who won WTA Dubai at 50/1 last week).
Two youngsters catch my eye in the bottom half of this week’s Acapulco draw. One is in a great run of form and has already made a final this season. Both are up to career-high rankings. And both arrive here high on confidence.
Bianca Vanessa Andreescu was a 100/1 runner-up at Auckland in January, where she came through qualifying and won a total of seven matches to reach the final.
Since then the 18-year-old Canadian has an overall played 12 won 11 match record, with the only defeat coming at the Australian Open to current World No.11 Anastasija Sevastova. And even that was a close one, going down two sets to one (we were on Andreescu as the match underdog that day).
Andreescu arrives in Acapulco on seven-match streak, including two Fed Cup (international) match wins earlier this month, and five wins to take the lower-tier WTA Newport Beach title at the end of January. This teenager is going places. She’s up to a career-best No.68 in the world, and can be expected to crack the Top 50 at least this year.
For a massive price on an outsider, Great Britain’s Katie Boulter is one to look out for. 888 Sport and Unibet have her at an eye-catching 75/1. Elsewhere you can get 50/1 and 40/1.
Katie arrives here after a high-spiriting winning performance as part of the Great Britain team at Bath in the World Group Playoffs a couple of weeks ago. If you caught any of that week’s action, you’ll have witnessed some brilliant tennis and great fight & mental toughness from Boulter. She hits the ball hard and plays a style of aggressive, attacking (modern) tennis that to be honest is refreshing to see from a young British player.
Boulter’s draw is tough on paper here. But Victoria Azarenka (8/1) struggles to put together back-to-back match wins these days. And it would be no surprise if our Aussie Open semi-finalist Danielle Collins (10/1) suffered a let-down and struggled to back up that big Grand Slam breakthrough in her first tournament back on the tour. Those two play each other in the 1st Round, so only one can progress.
There are plenty of exciting young players around at the moment. Andreescu looks one of the most likely to make it big. And Boulter – herself up to a career-high of No.82 – looks ready to make her WTA tournament breakthrough soon…
Today’s Ones to Watch Outright Winner picks are:
WTA Acapulco – Abierto Mexicano TELCEL
BET: Bianca Vanessa Andreescu @ 9/1 Each Way
BOOKIES: 9/1 (10.00) Bet365, Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook, Boylesports
BET: Katie Boulter @ 75/1 Each Way
BOOKIES: 75/1 (76.00) 888 Sport, Unibet, 50/1 (51.00) Skybet, 40/1 (41.00) Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook, Boylesports
Play starts in Mexico from 10pm Monday night, UK time.
I’ll be back in the week with more from Acapulco, Dubai and Sao Paulo.
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson