Wimbledon Women's Singles Day 1 Tips: Linette the best bet on Monday

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Veteran Venus Williams is in action on day one at Wimbledon

The women's singles get underway at Wimbledon on Monday, and there's plenty to discuss in advance of day one. Returning with his thoughts is Dan Weston...

  • 32 matches in the Women's Singles on Day 1

  • Favourite Swiatek and veteran Williams in action

  • Linette the nap at 1.84/5 to beat Teichmann


Pegula and Swiatek among big names on opening day

There are 32 matches on the day one schedule in the women's singles event at Wimbledon, and the top half of the draw is the focus on the opening day's play.

Players in action include our back-to-lay outright selection, Jessica Pegula, who faces fellow American Lauren Davis in her opener, and is priced as a strong pre-match favourite to make round two.

We also see the likes of world number one, and tournament favourite, Iga Swiatek, get her tournament started - the Pole faces Lin Zhu in what the market is pricing as a virtual bye - while other short-priced players on day one also include Darya Kasatkina, Victoria Azarenka, Veronika Kudermetova, Donna Vekić and Caroline Garcia.

Market taking a chance on Gauff's price

Another player who the market think will progress into round two is Cori Gauff, who is 1.282/7 to get past Sofia Kenin in another all-American clash.

Kenin eased through qualifiers, winning 36-14 in games in the six sets competed, and while she is still inconsistent, there are signs of improvement in her battle to get back to where she was a few years ago - her win over Aryna Sabalenka in Rome being an example.

Kenin was a strong grass-courter at her peak, winning Mallorca in 2019 and beating good opposition along the way, and I think the market is taking a bit of a chance on Gauff's price here.

Kenin +4.5 games is available at just over even money right now in the general marketplace, so as the handicap market on the Exchange develops (this match is one of the later ones on Monday's schedule), we should get around the 2.0421/20 mark on Kenin to cover this line.

Svitolina should get past part-time Williams

With something of an American focus to this day one preview, there's another match which catches the eye on the schedule featuring two former top five players as the 43-year-old Venus Williams, who picked up a wild card to be here, faces fellow wild card Elina Svitolina.

Svitolina, courtesy of a good run on clay towards the end of May and start of June is making big progress in recovering her lost ranking, but her 6-2 6-0 loss to Linda Fruhvirtova in Birmingham is a bit of a red flag in terms of having any confidence of beating Williams, who before this grass season hadn't played on tour for six months.

However, although Williams at her best was a terrific grass-courter, I think a lack of activity on tour will be too much of a hurdle for her to overcome against a motivated Svitolina.

Clay-courter Teichmann worth a fade against Linette

Finally, clay-courter Jill Teichmann has had a dreadful record on grass in recent years, barely winning more than half the points on her serve, and I'd expect Magda Linette to have too much for the Swiss player here.

The 23rd seed Linette is 1.84/5 to get the job done, which looks a decent spot to me against an opponent who has just one career main tour win on grass, which came this year as a favourite against qualifier Claire Liu in Bad Homburg.

Prior to Birmingham this year, Teichmann was on an eight match losing streak on the surface, winning just three sets in those matches.

It's not really a pro-Linette play, but more of a Teichmann fade and this looks a reasonable opportunity here.

Back Linette to beat Teichmann @ 1.84/5

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Back Linette to beat Teichmann @ 1.84/5

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