Tennis Betting Advice - July 2025
WTA Montreal: 28/1 teenager hitting form...
Thursday 31st July 2025
Back at the French Open this spring, I put up 18-year-old VICTORIA MBOKO as a 200/1+ rank outsider…
The Canadian teenager won five matches in Paris, coming through qualifying before bowing out in the 3rd round to Top 10 name, Qinwen Zheng.
That breakthrough Grand Slam showing put the young gun firmly on the Ones to Watch radar. What I like about Mboko is she goes for the big shots, and has the physical power to back them up.
Playing at home in Canada this week at a massive event, the National Bank Open, WTA 1000-grade tournament, the teenager has started brilliantly. Powering through the opening two rounds in Montreal with a pair of straight-sets victories.
The standard of opposition will go up now. Late tonight, Victoria will face 27-year-old Marie Bouzkova. The Czech is on a seven-match winning streak, having lifted the title at her own home-country event in Prague last week. The bookies have the teenager as the match favourite for this evening though. And I think the tournament Outright price of 28/1 could prove to have legs…
Mboko has won 14 out of 16 matches on hard courts at all levels this season. Her career hard-court match win-loss record of 44-17 puts her at 72%, ticking the box for the 70%+ win rate that gets me excited about surface-specific form.
Granted, most of the wins have come at smaller events on the lower-tier circuit. But as with most of the young guns that we like to get behind at Ones to Watch, Mboko looks to have that added x-factor of relishing the chance to perform on the big stage, and take it to the higher-ranked names…
Playing here at a career-high world ranking of no.85, the Canadian teenager will have the crowd behind her in every match. As the pressure grows, she’s either going to wilt, or rise to the occasion. My instinct is the latter.
With several seeds already knocked out of this side of the WTA Montreal draw, and potential upcoming opponent Coco Gauff looking off-form with a scrappy win-ugly result in the last round (serving a colossal 23 double faults). We’ll happily take the rising star Victoria Mboko as a 28/1 Each Way shot here.
One more name that I keep finding myself drawn back to this week is EMMA NAVARRO. The 24-year-old isn’t having a great summer so far, but as with Jessica Pegula, North American hard courts are the bread & butter for Emma…
Last season, Navarro made the semi finals at this event at its alternate venue in Toronto, and went on to end the summer with a maiden Grand Slam semi-final appearance at the US Open (beating Gauff along the way).
Put simply, odds of 50/1 looks too big for the world no.11, who was until very recently inside the Top 10 herself. Indeed, the American actually started the week at shorter odds. If and when Navarro clicks back into form, it’s very likely to be at an event like this one…
These are our two underdog selections to add to the book today…
Play resumes in the women’s event from 5.30pm, UK time.
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Ones to Watch picks:
See above for full details
Outright Winner - Each Way (1/2 odds 1-2 places):
National Bank Open presented by Rogers
Victoria Mboko @ 28/1 Bet365, Betfred, 888 Sport, Unibet, Boylesports, Betway, Ladbrokes, Coral
Emma Navarro @ 50/1 Bet365, William Hill, Betfred, Boylesports, Betway
Still to price up today at the time of writing: Skybet, Paddy Power & Betfair Sportsbook.
Play starts from 5.30pm, UK time. Bookies take down Outright Winner markets during each day’s matches.
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P.S
Our two men’s picks in Canada this week, Francisco Cerundolo and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, both came through their opening matches at ATP Toronto. You can catch up on my original write-up on those two here.
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Oliver Upstone