Scott Ferguson takes a look at day one of the Wimbledon Championships, with four best bets on offer.
Recommended bets
1pt Camila Giorgi to win at 6/4
0.5pt Novak Djokovic to win in straight sets and win each set 6-2, 6-3 or 6-4, at 15/8
1pt Anastasia Potapova to win at 4/6
2pts Damir Dzumhur to win at 11/10
For details of advised bookmakers and each-way terms, visit our transparent tipping record
Dayana Yastremska v Camila Giorgi
Camila Giorgi resumed at Eastbourne last week after three months off with a right wrist injury, losing a tight one to Hsieh but virtually gave it away with sixteen double faults, mostly in the first set. Once she found her rhythm, she looked to be in healthy form considering lack of match practice. Wimbledon is her best of the majors by results, with two ventures into the second week and a quarter-final just last year, defeating three top 50 players and eventually falling to Serena Williams in three sets.
Grass should suit the very aggressive style of Dayana Yastremska. She has the capacity to blow any player off the court but to date she is yet to harness that against smarter players with the experience to blunt that power, although she did reach the junior final in 2016.
This should be quite a tussle and despite Giorgi's recent break, I think the market should be pitched a little closer. All aboard the Italian here.
Best bet: Camila Giorgi to win at 6/4
Novak Djokovic v Philipp Kohlschreiber
As with tradition, the men's champion opens proceedings on centre court on the first Monday. The market suggests this will be a walk in the park for the top seed and there is no reason to refute that, but let's delve into the stats a little deeper to see if we can find a bet worthy of interest.
With a straight sets victory trading in the realms of 2/5, we look even further for a bet. The last time Novak Djokovic dropped any set in a round one match here was back in 2010. Against Philipp Kohlschreiber, the slate stands at 10-2, and those wins for the German were a decade apart.
There's a plethora of RequestABets available for this match with Skybet and it's the place to look for a novelty bet. Sixteen of the 23 sets won by Djokovic in their clashes have been across the middle band of 6-2, 6-3 or 6-4. An early break, perhaps a second, but rarely go for the whitewash. The bagel and the tiebreak have both only had one appearance in that set of scores.
For the TV bet, take a comfortable win for Djokovic without exerting too much dominance.
Best bet: Novak Djokovic to win in straight sets and win each set 6-2, 6-3 or 6-4, at 15/8
Anastasia Potapova v Jil Teichmann
Russian Anastasia Potapova claimed the girls' title here in 2016 and will be drawing on those memories to revive her current campaign, which has stagnated with nine losses in her past 13 matches. Potapova changed her coach during the autumn and soon claimed the two biggest wins of her career, against world no.13 Anastasija Sevastova in Prague and #5 Angelique Kerber in Paris. It then took Marketa Vondrousova to stop her at Roland Garros, in the form that carried her through to the final. She's much better suited to a faster, firmer court and on that basis, her loss in qualifying in Birmingham can be forgiven, due to the cold and damp weather Brtain was experiencing at the time.
Jil Teichmann is a clay specialist who has done her best to avoid grass since joining the WTA circuit. Her climb into the top 100 had been through gradual progress up the ladder winning ITF events until she won WTA Prague in May, after coming through qualifying. She failed to qualify for either of the two lead-up events on this surface and is likely to be back on clay as soon as next week unless she can reverse a 0-2 h2h record with the Russian teenager.
There's a chance to win a few rounds here for Potapova, she should get off to a flying start here.
Best bet: Anastasia Potapova to win at 4/6
Pablo Cuevas v Damir Dzumhur
Ending proceedings on Court 11 will be this clash between this pair who you can safely assume are more interested in the sights of London than the grass of SW19.
Uruguayan veteran Pablo Cuevas has been flying on the clay this season, winning two challenger titles and reaching multiple ATP semi-finals among his 28 wins. The problem is this form rarely transfers to other surfaces - he hasn't won a match at Wimbledon in ten years (from four events) with a lifetime grass tally of eight victories.
Bosnian Damir Dzumhur was seeded #27 here last year but has had a string of injuries to deal with in 2019, resulting in a drop in ranking into the 60s. Last week in Turkey, when defending his crown on the grass of Antalya, he succumbed to a virus midway through his quarter-final in the searing 44C heat. I am expecting that to be nothing more than a 24 hour bug which will have cleared his system soon enough. He had regained some form, winning six of his previous eight matches.
The h2h record between this pair isn't particularly relevant at 1-0 in favour of Dzumhur but I don't see how the market isn't reversed on this one. Only the slight doubt about the Bosnian being clear of the virus curbs me from being even stronger on this pick.
Best bet: Damir Dzumhur to win at 11/10
