Tennis Betting Advice - July 2020

Tennis sisters tipped for the top…

Thursday 2nd July 2020

In your Ones to Watch email today:

  • Tennis sisters tipped for the top…
  • Linda & Brenda Fruhvirtova…
  • More new events on the menu this month…

Czech teenagers on court this week…

As the name suggests, part of our Ones to Watch work involves keeping a keen eye on young and upcoming players about to hit the tours.

One event on the current post-lockdown tennis schedule this week was the Tipsport Elite Trophy in the Czech Republic. This women’s competition had well-known names like Petra Kvitova on the roster. As well as a couple of very young newcomers…

Exactly a year ago yesterday, a then 15-year-old Coco Gauff made a big name for herself on the grass courts at Wimbledon, beating former champion Venus Williams.

In less auspicious surroundings this week, another 15-year-old has been quietly impressing in the Czech Republic…

Over the last few weeks, Linda Fruhvirtova has faced established names including Marketa Vondrousova, Katerina Siniakova and Kristyna Pliskova.

On Tuesday, the 15-year-old Fruhvirtova got a victory against a fellow teenager, the 14-year-old Nikola Bartunkova.

It almost feels wrong that you can bet on players so young, but you can. And Fruhvirtova franked odds-on 1/6 (1.17) favouritism to win that all-teenage encounter.

The right-handed Czech, ranked just outside the world’s top 800 places, is one of three 15-year-olds currently residing inside the top 1,000 on the official WTA Tour standings. That’s prime ‘Ones to Watch’ territory, for sure…

Alongside Fruhvirtova, the other two young women are South Africa’s Isabella Kruger, and USA’s Robin Montgomery.

We’ll look out for those teenagers growing on the tours in the months and years to come.

Tennis sisters tipped for the top…

People could also be talking about the Fruhvirtova sisters in the years to come…

Linda’s kid sister is the 13-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova.

As this video from the Patrick Mouratoglou Academy’s Facebook page from last year shows, these sisters look to be kitted out and ‘in the system,’ with a professional tennis career ahead of them.

As the caption under that video says, Linda & Brenda are already being compared to Venus & Serena Williams…

I’m not one for jumping on the hype wagon, but the Fruhvirtova sisters could certainly be ones to look out in the future, if & when they start to appear regularly on the main WTA Tour and at Grand Slams in the months and years to come.

Both Linda and Brenda Fruhvirtova have been on court at various events in the Czech Republic in recent weeks. Along with those other youngsters mentioned in today’s email, we’ll keep an eye on their progress.

More new events on the menu this month…

No Wimbledon for this year, but our ‘alternative summer of tennis’ continues to grow…

There hasn’t been much that’s caught my eye in the match markets so far this week, although there are dozens of daily matches going on behind-closed-doors across Europe and the USA. For example, today’s schedule has a total of 145 matches on it, and most of them are covered by the bookmakers. We’ll continue to be selective and tread carefully.

Starting on 14th July, the Progress Tour Women’s Championships at Britain’s National Tennis Centre should be a well-run and televised event.

And also coming up this month, Germany are back in the action with a grass-court event scheduled to take place at the Steffi Graf Stadium in Berlin from 13th – 15th July. Followed by a hard-court competition, in a converted hangar at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport on 17th – 19th July.

Both of those German events are planning to have a limited number of fans inside the arena. With a maximum of 800 spectators a day permitted at the Steffi Graf Stadium, and 200 people per day at the Tempelhof venue.

Along with the DraftKings All-American Team Cup starting on Friday afternoon in Atlanta, Georgia and running over the weekend, we have plenty of new events to fill the Wimbledon void.

I like the match format that will be used at that American event. The same as at last week’s Battle of the Brits, it’s a best-of-three sets match, but final-set deciders are played as a Champions Tiebreak (first to 10 points, have to win by 2 pts).

That’s infinitely more appealing to me – both as a spectacle, and as a betting proposition – than the Fast4Tennis format, where ‘mini-sets’ are played, first to four games.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a look at the day one schedule at the All-American Team Cup.

Enjoy the tennis,

Best wishes,

Oliver Upstone

Tom Wilson

Ones to Watch