Wimbledon betting tips: Preview and best bets for ladies singles draw

Tennis betting tips: Wimbledon ladies' singles

2pts e.w. Ons Jabeur at 10/1 (Unibet)

1pt e.w. Beatriz Haddad Maia at 25/1 (Sky Bet)

0.5pt Karolina Muchova to win the second quarter at 20/1 (Sky Bet, Betfred)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

I have no doubt there will be some people reading this who don’t know who Iga Swiatek is.

That probably doesn’t reflect well on the WTA but for the benefit of those readers, Swiatek is world number one in the women’s game and she’ll start Wimbledon 2022 as a pretty hot favourite at 8/5.

For those betting on this year’s ladies’ singles, the primary question to answer is ‘will Swiatek just keep on winning on the grass?’

She arrives in SW19 on a 35-match winning streak – no-one has a better such run in the women’s game this century – so in many ways you could question why she’s not a shorter price than she is.

The Polish star delivered a profit for this column at the recent French Open ahead of which I pointed out her utter dominance of the WTA tour in recent months.

Apologies to the regular readers among you but I’m going to regurgitate those numbers now.

Swiatek has won 56 of the last 58 sets she’s played and 35 of those have been won by a scoreline of 6-2 or better. In short, most players aren’t even getting close to beating her.

But here’s the thing.

Swiatek has played only eight grasscourt matches at tour level in her career, winning four.

OK, three of those came at last year’s Wimbledon when she made the fourth round to suggest is no mug on this surface, but it’s still a worry.

Another concern for potential backers is whether opponents will take time away from her on the skiddier, lower-bouncing grass.

In Paris, she got the time to line up her punishing groundstrokes, often behind a strong serve, and she duly eased to the title.

Here I wonder whether a player with greater court craft and that ability to mix things up can drag Swiatek out of the rhythm she’s had for months.

In essence, I’m not prepared to back a player with just four grasscourt match wins to her name to win Wimbledon at no bigger than 8/5.

She can’t not be favourite and I won’t be pulling my jaw off the floor if she does lift the famous Venus Rosewater Dish on July 9 but neither can I see myself having regrets about not backing her at that price.

So, if not Swiatek, what are the best bets for Wimbledon 2022? I’m going to take a quarter-by-quarter look…

First quarter

*Zhang is now seeded and moved to quarter three. Bets on the above selection are void and stakes will be returned*

This is where top seed Swiatek resides and, to be fair, she’s had a pretty decent draw.

The big name in her path is former champion Garbine Muguruza but the Spaniard has been well short of her best in 2022.

It’s no surprise to see Swiatek a hot favourite in the quarter betting.

Yet if you subscribe to the viewpoint that she could be vulnerable here given her inexperience on the surface, then clearly some of those at a big price are worthy of consideration.

I’ll throw some loose change at SHUAI ZHANG, who is certainly a player happy to have the grass under her feet.

The experienced Chinese star has happy memories of the All England Club having made the last eight in 2019 and she’s proven she’s in good nick in the past few weeks.

She was a quarter-finalist in Nottingham, a tournament at which she made the final last season, before finishing runner-up in Birmingham.

Zhang may have gone even better had she not been affected by a back injury which is a potential concern for punters but it wasn’t something that prevented her playing doubles in Eastbourne just a few days later.

Having also won the doubles title in Nottingham and reached the final of that format in Birmingham, Zhang has played a lot of grasscourt tennis leading into this event.

She’s twice a Grand Slam champion in doubles so her volleying skills are top-notch and they could serve her well during this fortnight.

She has a tricky opening couple of rounds – Elena Rybakina is first up and then probably Bianca Andreescu – but I still can’t resist backing her to win this quarter at 125/1 given few players have won as many matches on grass coming in.

Second quarter

This looks a tricky section, one many players have the potential to win.

Three years on from her last-16 run as a 15-year-old, Coco Gauff is considered the player most likely to reach the semis but at odds of 100/30, it’s clear the layers aren’t totally convinced.

That’s because the likes of former champion Simona Halep, last year’s beaten finalist Karolina Pliskova and seven-time winner Serena Williams are all present.

I’ll put a line through Williams straight away, although I know some won’t.

She’s won majors before with little preparation but her current situation is unprecedented. Since limping out of last year’s Wimbledon, she’s played just two doubles matches, both in Eastbourne over the past week.

Yes, she’s one of the greatest players of all time but winning this off the back of that preparation (if that’s the right description) at the age of 40 would surpass everything. I don’t see it happening.

Halep is probably the best placed of those mentioned after showing good form in Birmingham and Bad Homburg, reaching the semi-finals of both events.

However, her withdrawal from the latter citing a neck injury is a slight concern, while I’m also wondering how she’ll deal with the occasion of returning to the All England Club for the first time since her 2019 triumph – she was denied the chance to defend in 2020 by the pandemic and then missed last year’s tournament.

Her opening opponent is also very awkward – KAROLINA MUCHOVA was one of the most dangerous floaters in the draw and she’s also my long-shot selection in this section.

• CLICK HERE to back Muchova with Sky Bet

The Czech has twice made the quarter-finals here with her mix-and-match game causing all sorts of problems.

She’s a master of the slice, keeping the ball low off the grass, and loves to disrupt the rhythm of her opponents.

Another strong doubles player with great volleys, she’s had an injury disrupted 2022 but claimed an impressive win over the much-fancied Maria Sakkari at the French Open.

She would have been disappointed to lose her only grasscourt warm-up match in Berlin but a look at her opponent – eventual champion Ons Jabeur – shows that was far from disastrous.

One of few players confident on this surface, I’m looking at that loss as a positive – a good run in Germany would have seen her price cut.

Instead we’re getting 20/1 about a good grasscourter winning this quarter.

Yes, it could all go wrong in the very first round but I think it’s worth a chance to small stakes to find out.

Third quarter

For those looking to continue the theme of players at long odds who love the grass, then this section also has options.

I’ve long been a fan of Alison Riske on grass and remember backing her here at 300/1 in 2019 when she eventually lost in three sets to Serena Williams in the quarter-finals. Oh, what might have been…

This year she’s already reached a grasscourt final, in Nottingham, and looks to have a decent early draw.

She’s 150s this year and 20s for this quarter.

Alison van Uytvanck is another who’s won plenty of matches on this surface already this year, claiming the ITF title in Surbiton and the WTA 125 crown in Gaiba.

Her two losses – both on the main tour – both came via final-set tie-breaks against good players. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka beat her in Den Bosch and Amanda Anisimova was her conqueror in Bad Homburg.

I suspect she’s going to cause Emma Raducanu problems in round one and I’d be tempted to back her at 28s in this quarter but for the presence of ONS JABEUR, who is my top pick in the outright market.

• CLICK HERE to back Jabeur with Sky Bet

As already stated, Jabeur won the WTA’s biggest warm-up event in Berlin, claiming a statement victory over Coco Gauff and then seeing off an ailing Belinda Bencic in the final.

She’s another player with great variety in her game, capable of winning matches in many different ways.

The Tunisian has the power to compete with the biggest hitters but also the craft to throw in the slices and drop shots to flummox rivals.

She showed that en route to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon last season when, perhaps notably, she was the player who beat Swiatek, winning 5-7 6-1 6-1.

Jabeur is 10/1 here which looks a good price, particularly given she steered clear of Swiatek in the draw.

Admittedly, the likeable 27-year-old flopped when fancied at the recent French Open, losing in round one, but I like the way she reacted to that.

Not only did she come out straight away and win in Berlin but she also realised the mistakes she made prior to Roland Garros.

She felt she played too much heading into that event so after winning the title in Germany she duly withdrew from singles in Eastbourne, only playing two doubles matches (alongside Serena Williams).

She then withdrew from the doubles draw although I’m imagining that was probably pre-planned given what she’d said about too many matches. The withdrawal simply gave both players the chance to get up to Wimbledon to practise.

Former champion Angie Kerber is a potential fly in the ointment here but I remember backing her here last year at 50/1 when she arrived off the back of victory in Bad Homburg.

This time around her form isn’t as good yet she’s a top price of 33s.

I’ll swerve that with Jabeur looking the best bet in this section – and arguably the tournament.

Fourth quarter

It seems a little bit odd to find the second seed and world number two as a 50/1 shot for Wimbledon but that’s what we’ve got here with Anett Kontaveit.

At that price she’ll probably have the odd backer given she’s won on grass in the past but her form seems a long way off that of the second half of 2021 when she enjoyed a run of 28 wins out of 30 at one stage.

Maria Sakkari and Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, plus Eastbourne finalist and ultimate ball-basher Jelena Ostapenko, are others who warrant respect in this quarter but I just can’t ignore the form of BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA.

• CLICK HERE to back Haddad Maia with Sky Bet

The Brazilian isn’t a well-known player but this could be the tournament which propels her into the mainstream.

She’s played some excellent tennis on grass over the past month, winning titles in Nottingham and Birmingham before a 12-match win streak was finally ended in the Eastbourne semi-finals by Petra Kvitova.

And it’s not just the number of wins but also the quality of the opponents.

Former Wimbledon queens Halep and Kvitova have been among her victims, as have grass specialists Riske and Camila Giorgi.

OK, maybe she’ll need to find another level to really challenge here but with confidence sky high right now, that looks possible.

Many players see their odds slashed in the weeks before Wimbledon off the back of a few wins and there’s no doubt Haddad Maia’s price has tumbled.

Yet if you’ve seen how she’s played, there’s still an argument that 25/1 is too big about her title chances and I get the feeling that were she not Brazilian, where players are supposed to do best on clay, then she’d be shorter.

An each-way bet is the recommendation.

Last updated at 0945 BST on 26/06/22

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