OTW Extra Email Archive - February 2019
Price Watch – and Bencic back in the big-time...
Monday 25th February 2019
In your Ones to Watch EXTRA email today:
More trophies for the youngsters...
We’re still only in February, but so far the 2019 season is producing plenty of young and first-time tournament winners.
On the WTA Tour, we’ve seen three title wins for players aged 20 or under: Aryna Sabalenka in Shenzhen (@ 9/2), Sofia Kenin in Hobart (18/1) and Dayana Yastremska in Hua Hin (12/1). Sabalenka and Yastremska are both on our Ones to Watch in 2019 list.
There have also been a couple of teenagers finishing runner-up in finals, with 100/1 Bianca Vanessa Andreescu in Auckland and 14/1 Marketa Vondrousova in Budapest. Vondrousova was on our Ones to Watch list in 2018. She’s still a teenager until this June.
On the ATP Tour, there have now been six first-time title winners this season, including two last week at massive prices...
The 23-year-old Laslo Djere won Rio de Janeiro (100/1) and 29-year-old Radu Albot won Delray Beach (50/1). Djere beat 18-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final (50/1). Albot becomes the first ever Moldovan player to win an ATP singles title. He beat Dan Evans in the final, with the Brit a 100/1 outsider. Auger-Aliassime and Evans were both making their debuts in finals.
In terms of the young men on our 2019 list, Stefanos Tsitsipas won a second ATP trophy at the weekend, winning the Marseille title as an 11/2 (6.50) shot.
Price Watch – the big-odds trend continues...
Here are last week’s tournament winners & runner-ups in full, with their pre-tournament Outright Winner prices in brackets:
ATP Rio de Janeiro – clay
Winner: L.Djere (100/1)
Runner-up: F.Auger-Aliassime (50/1)
ATP Delray Beach – hard
Winner: R.Albot (50/1)
Runner-up: D.Evans (100/1)
ATP Marseille – indoor hard
Winner: S.Tsitsipas (11/2)
Runner-up: M.Kukushkin (40/1)
WTA Budapest – indoor hard
Winner: A.Van Uytvanck (7/1)
Runner-up: M.Vondrousova (14/1)
WTA Dubai – hard
Winner: B.Bencic (50/1)
Runner-up: P.Kvitova (7/1)
Some massive prices there once again, with no fewer than five out of 10 finalists priced at 50/1 or 100/1 (!).
For the week there were seven out of 10 finalists at double-figure odds or bigger.
Keeping up the trend for the season overall...
From a total of 26 tournaments played in total this year, 14 winners (54%) have been at double-figure+ prices, with odds ranging from 12/1 to 150/1.
And of the 26 runners-up in the finals, no fewer than 22 (85%) have been in that category – with prices going from 10/1 right up to 200/1.
The numbers are clear. Looking beyond the short-price favourites at the top of the betting and hunting out the big Each Way prices is the way to go...
Bencic back in the big-time...
We’ve already got a couple of big ones in the book for Wimbledon.
Last week we added 100/1 Tomas Berdych as an outside chance for the Men’s title.
And before that, I flagged up Belinda Bencic at as big as 120/1 and 80/1 for the Women’s...
The Swiss star is still only 21 years of age, so with a few years of injury trouble hopefully behind her – the future looks very bright indeed...
Bencic won WTA Dubai at 50/1 last week, beating four Top 10 players in a row en route. It’s the best I’ve ever seen Bencic play, hitting the ball consistently deep & accurately, running opponents from side to side. And she held her nerve and fought hard when down on the scoreboard on multiple occasions, too – including saving match points early in the week.
That was Bencic’s first WTA title win since 2015. And it lifts her to No.23 in the rankings. Back in 2016 before injury struck, she’d hit No.7. It’s looking good for Belinda to scale those Top 10 heights once again.
The bookies now make Bencic 40/1 for Wimbledon. Which is still a nice One to Watch outsider price in my opinion.
I’ll be back next week with more on the tennis & the big prices. Indian Wells & the Miami Open are coming up in March. Those are the two biggest tour events outside of the Grand Slams.
P.S
The doors are now open...
Last week I mentioned the brand new football service being launched by my colleague, Oliver Upstone. It’s called Football Angles and the doors are now open, with Oliver inviting new members to get on board for an exclusive test drive.
The first bets are due this week. Football Angles will be going after big prices and outsiders, so it’s right up our street...
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson