Tennis Betting Advice - May 2018
WTA Strasbourg – 12/1 and 16/1 picks…
Sunday 20th May 2018
In your Ones to Watch email today:
Back in the game…
I’m back from my short break (walking in Cornwall, lovely), fit & ready for action with the start of the French Open just a week away.
Before the hustle & bustle of Paris we have four much smaller tournaments taking place across the ATP and WTA Tours this week…
With most of the big names otherwise occupied in preparation for Roland Garros, these pre-Grand Slam events can provide rich pickings for some of the less-known players on the circuit.
We’re kicking off the week with two picks for the women’s tournament in Strasbourg – more on those in a second.
I’ve been having a think while away and I’m making a slight change to the staking plan; from now on I’ll be keeping things simple on the bet spreadsheet with all tournament Outright Winner picks treated as 1 point Each Way, and all Match bets treated as 1 point. This will allow us to gain the maximum possible returns when our big price Each Way picks make the finals or lift the trophies (as opposed to potentially ‘watering them down’ with smaller stakes). As ever, I’ll keep you posted with my recommendations if we get players into semi finals etc, for the chance to protect stakes or create win-win situations.
Also a quick update on last week’s picks. No cigar but no shame in our three players’ performances, either. 100/1 Begu and 100/1 Schwartman both managed one match win each before going out in close matches that went the distance to a final deciding set. 20/1 Kasatkina was the only player all week to take a set off eventual WTA Rome winner Elina Svitolina – a 6-0 ‘bagel,’ no less – but Svitolina was too good and came back to win 2-1.
Ones to Watch this week – at 12/1 and 16/1…
Back to this week’s WTA Strasbourg tournament and I like two women, one in each half of the draw…
In the top half, Danielle Collins @ 12/1 is an improving player that I like for having the key quality of being very steady-headed and reliable on court. I like that. We know what we’re getting. The American is having a breakthrough season, aged 24 making a sudden leap into main WTA Tour events and up the rankings. As such, previous form – on clay or elsewhere – can largely be thrown out the window. The top half of the draw doesn’t look too scary with top seed Ashleigh Barty (6/1) not at her best this season and doing better in the Doubles than in the main Singles draw of tournaments.
Collins has already won her 1st Round match this week, and she’s caught the eye so far in 2018 with a semi final run at the prestigious Miami Masters, along with three wins on clay in Rome last week, including very respective victories over Sorana Cirstea and Camila Giorgi in qualifying. A first WTA final looks like it could come along this season and this could be the week. There have been rain delays in Strasbourg already, including in her opening match, and a player like Collins has the patience and demeanour to deal with them.
In the bottom half of the draw Sam Stosur has won two of the last three Strasbourg titles and is 10/1 to defend her crown. However as I’ve said before I find the Australian hard to trust; she can throw in plenty of bad days and unforced errors on court. This week I prefer to go with a player in a bit of current form and that’s Mihaela Buzarnescu @ 16/1…
The Romanian has found her best tennis late on; she turned 30 earlier this month and so far this year Buzarnescu has made it to a first and then a second WTA final of her career. Most recent was an impressive runner-up finish in Prague where it took one of the form players of 2018, two-time Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova, the full three sets to beat her.
I’ve watched Buzarnescu play a couple of times recently and been impressed by her left-handed forehand in particular. She’s playing good tennis lately, and like Collins, has reached a career-high ranking this season, and is already safely into the 2nd Round here in Strasbourg.
WTA Strasbourg – Internationaux de Strasbourg
Outright Winner:
BET: Danielle Collins @ 12/1 Each Way
BOOKIES: 12/1 (13.00) Paddy Power, 10/1 (11.00) Bet365, William Hill
BET: Mihaela Buzarnescu @ 16/1 Each Way
BOOKIES: 16/1 (17.00) Paddy Power, 14/1 (15.00) Ladbrokes, Coral
Play starts in Strasbourg from 10am UK time, so get your bets on before then as the bookies take down the Outright markets during play (and put them back up in the evening).
There are also tournaments at WTA Nuremberg, ATP Lyon and ATP Geneva this week – we’ll be casting our eye over them over the next couple of days, as well as of course getting ready for next week’s assault on the French Open 2018.
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson