The British summer is in full swing, despite it peeing down with rain as I type, which means the lawns are getting mown, the Robinson’s Barley is getting chilled and the tennis balls are coming out. It also means it is the opening day of the Fever-Tree Championship at Queens Club in London.
This is a stacked field which means we have quality right off the bat, and indeed the number one seed is in action on the first day along with plenty of seasoned campaigners as the tournament gets going in style.
Centre Court
There are four matches slated on the main court on the opening day and we get going with the popular superstar in waiting in Denis Shapovalov. He takes on the monster serve of Gilles Muller before the first of five Britons in the tournament takes to the court when Cameron Norrie faces Stan Wawrinka. The big servers keep on coming in the third match of the day when the number one seed Marin Cilic takes on a Fernando Verdasco who can blow hot or cold at the best of times. The day is rounded off with another man who delivers a hefty first hit in Sam Querrey. He faces the British wildcard Jay Clarke.
Court 1
There are just two singles matches mixed in with the doubles tussles out on Court 1 and it is a day for the Americans with three of the four players in action from across the pond. After a doubles match Jared Donaldson will meet Frances Tiafoe and then once Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares have got their doubles campaign underway Jack Sock will take on Daniil Medvedev.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I like two on the opening day. I look at the first match on Centre Court and it just yells tiebreaks to me and I wouldn’t be surprised if we have three tiebreak sets. The serve of Gilles Muller is a beast on grass but there is more than enough variety and disguise in the Denis Shapovalov delivery to keep the Luxembourg man guessing so I’m expecting a number of services holds and the serve to really dominate. 22.5 games looks a lot but with breaks of serve likely to be at a premium I’ll sign up to the over.
The last time Jack Sock was in London he was beating up Alexander Zverev and Marin Cilic while running Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov close at the o2 Arena. Things are much different just nine months later. He arrives here with a 5-11 record on the season and has not won successive matches in any tournament. Worse still he has lost his last three first rounds. We saw Daniil Medvedev pull off a big shock at Wimbledon last year when he beat Stan Wawrinka and he was a semi-finalist at Eastbourne on the grass too so we know he can play this surface. He has a winning record on the year and even at 4/5 has to be backed to beat the American.
Tips
WON – Back D.Shapovalov vs G.Muller – Over 22.5 games for a 5/10 stake at 2.10 with Ladbrokes
Back it here:
Back D.Medvedev to beat J.Sock for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
