The grass courts at Wimbledon will be graced by the best players in the world for the first time in 2023 on Monday when the third Grand Slam of the year gets underway with a packed schedule of play in the English capital.
We know that tradition dictates that the male defending champion begins his title defence on the opening day so we were guaranteed to see Novak Djokovic on the schedule but the card also includes the likes of Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Jannik Sinner.
Centre Court
As always the defending champion comes back and opens up play on Centre Court so we have two men’s matches inside the main arena. Novak Djokovic is the man who is attempting to defend the title and so he is the first big name on show. He meets Pedro Cachin who makes his tournament debut with the toughest draw possible. When they are done the pick of the women’s first round matches will be played as Venus Williams meets Elina Svitolina before the exciting Italian ace Jannik Sinner concludes the Centre Court schedule when he meets Juan Cerundolo, who saw his brother win in Eastbourne over the weekend.
Court 1
With two men’s matches on the Centre Court on Monday we have two women’s matches over on Court 1 and it will be the number one seed Iga Swiatek who is first on show. She meets Lin Zhu, who ranked 34 in the world is the second hardest draw that the French Open champion could have got. Casper Ruud will be the only seeded male on show on this court on Monday. He will face off against the French qualifier Laurent Lokoli who makes his first start at Wimbledon. Two American players round off the action on Court 1 on Monday when Coco Gauff goes up against the former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.
Court 2
It is the doubles partner of Gauff who will get the action up and running over on Court 2 on Monday. With this court beginning before the two main ones there is an extra match. Jessica Pegula is that partner of Gauff and she will look to improve what is a modest grass court record against fellow American player Lauren Davis. Nick Kyrgios was due to be the second match on this court but his withdrawal means that David Goffin will meet a lucky loser before the Olympic champion Belinda Bencic takes on the British wildcard Katie Swan. The final match on this court sees another British player on show when Dan Evans looks to find some confidence against Quentin Halys.
Court 3
The other show court also has four matches on it on Monday with the seventh seed Andrey Rublev opening up play on his return to the tournament after being banned from it a year ago. He goes up against Max Purcell in his first round game. The fifth seed Caroline Garcia will be on court after him when she faces Katie Volynets for a spot in the second round. Caty McNally meets the British number one Jodie Burrage in the third match on this court and then the Court 3 schedule is rounded off with the former Eastbourne champion Taylor Fritz going up against the German player Yannick Hanfmann.
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Best of the Rest
The beauty of this tournament is whether you have a grounds pass or are sat at home watching you have access to every court viewing and the outside courts on Monday are full of stars. The Canadian pair of Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov are joined by Donna Vekic on the Court 12 schedule while Veronika Kudermetova, Hubert Hurkacz and Daria Kasatkina will all be on show over on Court 18. Marie Bouzkova, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Roberto Bautista Agut and Victoria Azarenka are some of the other seeds who will be on show.
Men’s Betting
I’ll go with two from the men’s draw on Monday with the first bet coming in the opening set of matches where I like Jordan Thompson to get the better of Brandon Nakashima. The Australian is enjoying a decent grass court campaign having made the final in Hertogenbosch. He has only made the second round of the two events he has played since then but he has been taken out in three sets by two very competent grass courters with vicious leftie serves in Cameron Norrie and Feliciano Lopez. Nakashima has played in three grass court events this season, winning one match against Mikael Ymer where he needed three sets and he really didn’t look great in losing to Aleksandar Vukic at Eastbourne. Thompson, who saw off Milos Raonic and Adrian Mannarino on his way to that final in the Netherlands, looks a good bet to me.
Dusan Lajovic hasn’t played a competitive match since he pulled out of the French Open but any fears that he might have fitness issues were dispelled when he took part in the Boodles exhibitions last week and duly downed Diego Schwartzman and Stefanos Tsitsipas, two big names to add to the collection of recognisable players he has beaten in 2023. He now faces someone far inferior in Jan Choinski who had two goes at winning a match at Eastbourne last week and failed, a week after he looks bang average at Queens. Choinski’s better work is done on other surfaces to this one so having had those two exhibition matches to prove his fitness and get familiar with the grass I expect Lajovic to dominate this one.
Women’s Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that takes my fancy in the women’s draw on Monday with the prices being about right in most cases but one match where that is not the case is the one between Qinwen Zheng and Katerina Siniakova. The latter has good memories of Wimbledon having won the doubles here last year and she comes in here off the back of winning the title in Bad Homburg last week which should give her even more good vibes ahead of this match.
Zheng is the higher ranked player of the two but she can be erratic and inconsistent and although in Veronika Kudermetova and Jessica Pegula she had two tough draws in the two grass events she has played this season the Chinese player didn’t win a set and won 13 games in total across the two matches. I think the odds might be the wrong way around here based on what we’ve seen on the grass so I’ll go with the Czech to make it through here.
Tips
Back J.Thompson to beat B.Nakashima for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back D.Lajovic (-2.5 games) to beat J.Choinski for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back K.Siniakova to beat Q.Zheng for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
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