Wimbledon Women’s Singles First Round – June 28 Odds and Picks
- Wimbledon’s opening day sees the bottom half of the women’s singles draw swing into action
- All of the seeded players are favorites, although Sofia Kenin and Karolina Pliskova have tight odds
- We break down Day 1 and look at three matches with upset potential
Petra Kvitova gets the one women’s match scheduled for Centre Court on Wimbledon’s opening day.
And why not; the two-time champion faces former US Open champion Sloane Stephens in a match that wouldn’t have happened this early until recently, when Stephens’s ranking dropped out of the top 70.
Tournament co-favorites Ashleigh Barty and Serena Williams will make their entrance on Tuesday.
Wimbledon Women’s Singles June 28 odds
| Monday Matchups | Odds from DraftKings |
|---|---|
| [2] Aryna Sabalenka vs. [Q] Monica Niculescu | -1000 / +650 |
| [4] Sofia Kenin vs. [Q] Xinyu Wang | -230 / +180 |
| [7] Iga Swiatek vs. Hsieh Su-Wei | -455 / +340 |
| [8] Karolina Pliskova vs. Tamara Zidansek | -230 / +180 |
| [10] Petra Kvitova vs. Sloane Stephens | -530 / +390 |
| [11] Garbiñe Muguruza vs. Fiona Ferro | -770 / +550 |
| [13] Elise Mertens vs. [WC] Harriet Dart | -910 / +600 |
| [15] Maria Sakkari vs. Arantxa Rus | -770 / +525 |
| [18] Elena Rybakina vs. Kristina Mladenovic | -455 / +340 |
| [21] Ons Jabeur vs. Rebecca Peterson | -910 / +650 |
| [22] Jessica Pegula vs Caroline Garcia | -265 / +205 |
| [23] Madison Keys vs. [Q] Katie Swan | -560 / +410 |
| [26] Petra Martic vs. Varvara Gracheva | -400 / +300 |
| [28] Alison Riske vs. Tereza Martincova | -167 / +135 |
| [29] Veronika Kudermetova vs Viktorija Golubic | -150 / +120 |
| [32] Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Laura Siegemund | -500 / +370 |
| Donna Vekic vs. Anastasia Potapova | -157 / +125 |
| [WC] Venus Williams vs. Mihaela Buzarnescu | -141 / +114 |
| Vera Zvonareva vs. Marie Bouzkova | -130 / +106 |
Odds as of June 27
The only other player in this half to own a Grand Slam title is No. 4 seed Sofia Kenin.
But the 22-year-old, who won the Australian Open in 2020, hasn’t played since losing in the fourth round at the French Open.
Kenin hasn’t had a competitive match on the grass since losing to Dayana Yastremska in the second round of the 2019 edition of Wimbledon.
[10] Petra Kvitova (-530) vs. Sloane Stephens (+390)
The head-to-head between these two is fairly indicative of what could happen Monday, even if it’s tempting to consider Stephens a long shot on the basis of her resumé.
Kvitova had a routine win when they met in Wuhan in 2019. Stephens beat Kvitova twice back in 2017, in back-to-back weeks on the hard courts in Toronto and Cincinnati. But that was during an unreal stretch that culminated in the US Open title a few weeks later.
Stephens isn’t nearly the player she was then.
And she hasn’t played since the French Open.
Stephens withdrew late from the Bad Homburg tournament last week – after the draw was made – with a right foot injury. While it was the left foot that required surgery in 2017, it was the right that hampered her at the Olympics in Rio in 2016 and originally sidelined her.
Kvitova, who suffered an ankle injury leaving a TV interview at the French Open and had to withdraw, played herself into form in reaching the Bad Homburg semifinals.
Best Bet: Kvitova in two sets (-165)
[WC] Venus Williams (-141) vs. Mihaela Buzarnescu (+114)
At 41, Williams has dropped outside the top 100. The five-time Wimbledon women’s singles champion needed a wild card to get in this year.
On recent evidence, she is not moving well at all. And the grass, which requires a lot of bending down, won’t help her.
Williams has lost in the first round of all five of her tournaments since leaving Australia, and is 2-7 on the season. In those five defeats, she has won just two sets.
https://youtu.be/WQy0PusYt7Q
The one meeting between the two was a very tight three-setter in the first round of the 2019 Australian Open.
Buzarnescu had a terrific grass-court season back in 2018. She went 9-4 and lost to premium-quality players each time.
Best Bet: Buzarnescu in three sets (+400)
[4] Sofia Kenin (-230) vs. [Q] Xinyu Wang (+180)
Even if Kenin is an Australian Open champion and a French Open finalist, she’s never done much at Wimbledon.
In two appearances, she has bowed out in the second round.
Kenin also has had her share of issues in 2021, including an emergency appendectomy in Australia and a split with her coach father in April.
She hasn’t played a tune-up event.
Meanwhile, the 19-year-old Chinese player Wang won three tough matches in qualifying last week. And she also played two grass-court events before that.
Wang was the Wimbledon junior singles semifinalist three years ago at age 16, losing to eventual champion Iga Swiatek. And she won the doubles with countrywoman Xiyu Wang.
Kenin is going to be stressed; Wang is making her Wimbledon women’s singles main draw debut, and should be swinging freely.
Best Bet: Over 2.5 sets (+155)
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Stephanie gets the straight dope from the tennis insiders. On court, she has represented her country internationally. A BA in journalism led to years on the MLB beat and a decade covering tennis globally. She's written for Postmedia, the Guardian, the New York Times and also publishes OpenCourt.ca.
