Wimbledon is only a day old and we’ve seen sunshine, rain and plenty of quality tennis already. Andy Murray is through to the second round, and plenty more men and women will be looking to join him in the second round with victory on Tuesday. Betting on tennis can be a nicely profitable little hobby, so who will be well backed in the first round on Tuesday?
Power Pair to Progress
All eyes will be on two of the men’s top seeds on Tuesday; Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
The resurgent Federer, belying his 35 years, won the Australian Open in January and missed much of the clay court campaign in order to prepare for another assault on SW19.
Was that a smart idea? We’ll find out when the Swiss ace takes on Alexandr Dolgopolov, his tricky compatriot who is capable of the sublime and the ridiculous in the same afternoon.
But the manner in which Federer won the Halle tournament a couple of weeks ago suggests his excellent form of 2017 is set to continue, and with a 3-0 head-to-head lead over Dolgopolov he has to be fancied to record a comfortable first round victory.
Novak Djokovic will meanwhile begin his Wimbledon campaign against Martin Klizan. The Serb has been working hard alongside new coach Andre Agassi, and even took an extra preparatory step by playing a warm-up event at Eastbourne; not a measure he usually takes. But a tournament win under his belt – his first since January – is just the tonic for the former world number one.
His opponent Klizan is a solid enough player, but with just one set of grass court tennis to his name this term – he retired at 6-6 against Marcel Ilhan in Turkey – the fear for the Slovak is that he will take to the court overwhelmingly undercooked.
Assuming Djokovic is feeling good about his game, he should have too much firepower for Klizan…with plenty to spare as well.
Tuesday’s Best Bets
With Federer priced at 1/50 and Djokovic 1/33 to win their matches, punters won’t earn their corn by backing that formidable duo. Instead, we must look elsewhere for value on Tuesday.
Feliciano Lopez is in fine fettle at the moment after winning the Queen’s Club title so shortly after reaching the final in Stuttgart. His opponent in the first round is Adrian Mannarino, a talented Frenchman whom Lopez holds a 3-0 head-to-head lead over.
But two of those encounters went the distance, and with Lopez not the best returner of serve there should be plenty of mileage in this one. Over 36.5 Games is the play at 8/11.
Juan Martin del Potro has done remarkably well to battle back from a host of career-threatening injuries to deliver some decent performances on his return, and while his quality is not in question his decision not to play any grass court matches in readiness for Wimbledon is.
His first-round opponent, Thanasi Kokkinakis, is a real prospect, and he has already beaten the mercurial Milos Raonic and the experienced Mikhail Youzhny during this grass court run. Over 3.5 Sets at 11/10 is worth a tickle.
One of the closest first-round ties in the men’s draw sees Bernard Tomic tackle Mischa Zverev. The Aussie is talented but his ability to press the self-destruct button is perhaps matched only by that of his compatriot Nick Kyrgios, and if Zverev can make life difficult for his opponent then he could crumble.
At 10/11 for the German to win, it is certainly worth a flutter.