Wimbledon – Day 1
The opening day of the Wimbledon Championships sees some really big names in action right off the bat as the lawns of SW19 grace the stars of tennis on Monday. As is tradition the defending men’s champion will open up on Centre Court which means we will see Novak Djokovic beginning his title defence early on Monday.
Other names in action on an exciting opening day include Roger Federer, Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori in the men’s draw while the first two Grand Slam winners on the women’s side – Angelique Kerber and Garbine Muguruza are also in action on the main courts.
Centre Court
Novak Djokovic opens up on Centre when he takes on Britain’s James Ward. Last year’s women’s runner up Muguruza takes on Camila Giorgi in the second match before the legend Roger Federer graces Centre Court once again when he goes up against Guido Pella in a match he should win.
Giorgi could cause Muguruza a few problems if she is allowed to but all in all I’m expecting three pretty comfortable wins for the favourites there.
Court 1
We have three matches on Court 1 on Monday too. Venus Williams gets the action underway there when she takes on Stan Wawrinka’s girlfriend Donna Vekic. Kei Nishikori takes on the dangerous big server Sam Groth after that before the action is rounded off by Angelique Kerber taking on Britain’s Laura Robson.
Once again I’m not sure either of the favourites are going to be beaten although if Groth serves well he could make that a long afternoon for Nishikori. Sadly I don’t see Robson turning Kerber over this time.
Court 2
The graveyard court sees Kyle Edmund taking on Adrian Mannarino first up before Madison Keys and Milos Raonic look to avoid the curse of this court. They take on Laura Siegemund and Pablo Carreno-Busta. Simona Halep is last up on this court when she faces Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
All three seeds are heavy favourites as you would expect and don’t really offer too much in the way of value this early in the tournament.
Court 3
Four seeds are in action on this court with Sam Stosur kicking things off. She faces Magda Linette in a match she should win but you never quite know with the Australian.
The second match looks like a good one as Dudi Sela takes on David Ferrer and then David Goffin looks for a little bit of Belgian revenge when he takes on Britain’s Alexander Ward. The action on this court concludes with Naomi Broady going up against Elina Svitolina, the 17th seed from Ukraine.
Best of the Rest
Plenty of other seeds are in action including former Queen’s finalist Kevin Anderson who takes on Denis Istomin on Court 4, big Ivo Karlovic and Jack Sock are in action on a day of big serving out on Court 8. Anyone with a ground pass could do worse than watch Sock against Ernests Gulbis.
On the other side of the complex the action on Court 12 looks good with Marin Cilic playing with Ana Ivanovic and Carla Suarez-Navarro featuring before arguably the match of the day when Gael Monfils goes up against Jeremy Chardy in an all-French battle. Former finalist Sabine Lisicki is the headline attraction on Court 18.
Betting
As with the French Open I’m going to avoid a number of the heavy favourites in this first round. Conditions might be a little heavy and slippy on the opening day and large handicaps can easily be busted as the conditions level things out a little bit.
I’m going with three bets across the two draws here. The first is on a man who delivered for us in the Aegon Championships and who I’m hoping can deliver again and that is Kyle Edmund. He takes on Adrian Mannarino in a tricky looking match but on this surface it is one I think Edmund can win.
Edmund has recent history in beating French players having taken care of Gilles Simon at Queens’ and I see no reason why he can’t beat Mannarino. Mannarino is solid but he is a touch player. He doesn’t really have a shot that gets players off the court unlike Edmund with his forehand and if that can be in decent order then this is a match he can win. Edmund will have a big crowd behind him and at odds against he looks a good bet.
You have to take Grigor Dimitrov on these days. He looks shot of any confidence and even on the rare occasions he plays well he finds ways to lose. He shouldn’t really lose to Bjorn Fratangelo of the United States but the lowly ranked American has been winning matches in the Challengers on grass earlier this month and you can’t account for winning matches whatever the level.
I would expect Dimitrov to come through but after the run of form he has been on I can’t see it being without a scare or two so at the very worst Fratangelo can nab a set if not two and that should be enough to cover a fairly large handicap that he is in receipt of.
I’m also going to dip into the women’s draw when I’m taking a close watching brief on this bottom half but I am interested in Alize Cornet. Cornet beat Serena Williams here in the past and you don’t do that if you can’t play on grass.
She has a 3-1 head to head lead on her opponent Polona Hercog. Hercog doesn’t win many matches at this level whereas Cornet has won a title in 2016 and is established at the level. It might not be the best price at just over 4/5 but it looks safe enough to me.
Tips
Back K.Edmund to beat A.Mannarino for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with Winner Sports
Back him here:
Back B.Fratangelo (+5.5 games) to beat G.Dimitrov for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with NetBet
Back him here:
WON – Back A.Cornet to beat P.Hercog for a 4/10 stake at 1.81 with Unibet
Back her here:
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