OTW Extra Email Archive - September 2017
8/1 Kristyna to do it again (play starts 6am)…
Tuesday 26th September 2017
In your Ones to Watch email today:
Medvedev meltdown…
It was a case of after the Lord Mayor’s show last week, with our 16/1 pick Daniil Medvedev crashing out in his opening match in St Petersburg.
It was a woeful, bad-tempered, error-strewn performance from the 21-year-old Russian. He got a court violation for smashing his racket and looked ready to explode. Maybe he was trying too hard to land a win ‘at home’ in Russia. Maybe he was just having a bad day.
Whatever the case, there was no glorious follow-up to our 40/1 US Open win on Sloane Stephens here. And of course, a different outsider went on to lift the St Petersburg trophy – 25/1 Damir Dzumhur winning his maiden ATP title.
Ones to Watch this week…
On to this week and there are two Men’s events and two Women’s tournaments on the calendar…
The tours are heading East, and that means early-morning starts, UK time.
I’m interested in the WTA event in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The 1st Round has already been played and the next matches start from 6am Wednesday…
8/1 Kristyna to do it again…
We landed an 18/1 winner at the WTA Tashkent tournament this time last year, and I like the chances of Kristyna Pliskova defending her title or making the final again.
The left-handed, 6ft+ twin sister of Karolina Pliskova, who is a confirmed Top 5 player, is up to No.41 in the rankings. She was ranked No.100 this time last year, so it’s understandable that we get a smaller price on the less-famous Czech sister this time.
And – as was the case in 2016 – there is hardly an abundance of top-ranked players in this low-key Tashkent draw…
Fellow single-figure players in the current betting Marketa Vondrousova (4/1), Aleksandra Krunic (6/1), Kateryna Kozlova (7/1) and Timea Babos (8/1) are all ranked outside the Top 50.
I watched Pliskova’s opening match this morning and while she laboured a bit to the eventual 2-1 win, she did have her chances to win in straight sets, 2-0.
The main encouraging thing for me was that Kristyna was serving plenty well enough – her serve is her biggest weapon and 13 Aces and 71% of 1st Serve Points Won is better than most serving stats you see in a WTA match. In an event without much top quality on show, that can count for a lot.
Pliskova has ranking points to defend having won what is her only WTA title to date here last season, and odds of around 8/1 make her a decent Each Way selection for me considering the standard of opposition in the draw.
One to Watch this week:
Outright Winner – Each Way terms: 1/2 odds 1-2 places
I’ll be back next week with more Ones to Watch for you.
Enjoy the tennis…
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Best wishes,