Tennis Betting Advice - June 2020
Battle of the Brits line-up - and a 7/2 shot...
Tuesday 16th June 2020
In your Ones to Watch email today:
The first weekend of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) didn’t really do it for me.
I’m just not sure about this radically altered playing format. Players can win points without hitting a ball, due to occasional bonus ‘cards’ than can be used during a match. That doesn’t feel right to me.
And like end-to-end basketball, the match is decided by the final buzzer going off, rather than a particular scoreboard target. It might catch on. It might not.
After one dismal foray into the UTS match betting yesterday (just one out of four legs correct in my 5/1 acca), my time is probably best spent in the other events taking place on the new tennis calendar this summer. And luckily for us, there are loads of them…
Battle of the Brits line-up announced…
A big one starts a week today. The Battle of the Brits is being held behind closed doors at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.
The action starts with a men’s event, with eight competitors, in a round-robin group stage. With the best performers progressing to semi finals & a final.
The matches will be shown live on Amazon Prime Video.
Play begins on Tuesday, 23rd June – signalling the start of a welcome burst of British tennis that will run throughout July, and also include women’s events. Excellent stuff. Lots to look forward to.
Here’s the confirmed Battle of the Brits line-up…
In the ‘Henman Group’ (see what they’ve done there):
Andy Murray
Kyle Edmund
Liam Broady
James Ward
And in the ‘Rusedski Group’:
Dan Evans
Cameron Norrie
Jay Clarke
Jack Draper
You know what I’d really love to see from the bookmakers for this new event? An Outright Winner market, with Each Way betting…
They’d have Andy Murray as the favourite, of course. But it would be a market I’d enjoy getting stuck into, and we could get a nice price or two on the other players.
Outright market or not, we’ll be sure to have plenty of match options to look at. I’ll be on the case, doing all the research on your behalf.
It’s not Wimbledon, but it’s summer tennis in England nevertheless. I’ll be covering the Battle of the Brits every day, starting from next week.
A 7/2 shot for today…
For today, we’re nipping over to Austria again for the latest round of the Generali Austrian Pro Series.
At the end of last month, we successfully called a 2-1 score for the veteran Jurgen Melzer against his younger compatriot, Lenny Hampel.
The 2-1 Set Betting option was 7/2 (4.50) that day. We can get the same odds again this afternoon.
As well as the reasoning I laid out ahead of that first meeting, the recent Austrian Pro Series formbook shows these two guys are prone to three-set battles.
Three of Melzer’s last four matches in this clay-court series have gone the distance. As have two of Hampel’s last three.
Melzer is 1/2 (1.50) at best to win again. As you know by now, I like greater odds of 7/2 for the 2-1 score.
Generali Austrian Pro Series:
4pm
I’ll be back later in the week with more on this week’s tournaments. There’s a new women’s round of matches at the DTB German Pro Series. The day one schedule is dominated by short-price favourites. But I’ll be keeping an eye out for underdog performances and competitive prices…
Enjoy the tennis,
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson