The opening day of the Wimbledon tournament has arrived with half of the singles draws playing their first round match across the many courts at SW19 with those on show likely to be greeted by a heatwave in the English capital.
It is tradition that the men’s champion opens up the action on the main court so Carlos Alcaraz is the star attraction on Monday but the likes of Aryna Sabalenka, Alexander Zverev, Madison Keys and a whole host of British players are on show too.
Centre Court
We have known for 12 months that it would be Carlos Alcaraz who would be the first star name on the Centre Court this week as he opens up his title defence. What we didn’t know though was that it will be Fabio Fognini that his first round opponent will be. They open up a decent schedule on the main court with the British number two Katie Boulter following them onto court. She takes on the ninth seed Paula Badosa in what looks like being a heavy hitting contest. There are only three matches on Centre Court at Wimbledon so closing out the action on the opening day will be the number three seed Alexander Zverev. He meets the French player Arthur Rinderknech.
Court 1
It isn’t very often that the number one seed opens up her campaign on the second court in a Grand Slam but that is the case for Aryna Sabalenka on Monday. She is the first on show on Court 1 where she will meet the qualifier Carson Brantstine who has already taken care of Lois Boisson and Bianca Andreescu en route to the main draw. When they are done it is all about the Brits with the male number two Jacob Fearnley on court against the exciting hotshot from Brazil in Joao Fonseca while two other British players round out the Court 1 action when Emma Raducanu looks to make it into the second round when she faces her compatriot Mimi Xu for whom this is the biggest day in her career.
Court 2
We have an extra match on Court 2 on Monday so four matches in all and it is the number nine seed Daniil Medvedev who will get the action underway on what is known as the graveyard court for the seeds. Benjamin Bonzi will hope to deliver the first upset of 2025. The Australian Open champion Madison Keys will be second up on this court. She opens her campaign against Elena-Gabriela Ruse before the woman who was beaten in the final last year, Jasmine Paolini, takes on Anastasija Sevastova. A men’s match rounds off the day over on this court which sees the recent Eastbourne champion Taylor Fritz looking to extend an excellent run on the grass in 2025 when he takes on the big serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
Court 3
The other main court at Wimbledon is Court 3 and there are four matches on show on that court on Monday as well with the opening clash being between Jelena Ostapenko and the British number three Sonay Kartal. Holger Rune will be the first male seed onto this court. He has an awkward looking test against the big serving Chilean player Nicolas Jarry before the former finalist Matteo Berrettini begins his quest to return to the title match. He has a meeting with the Polish player Kamil Majchrzak. The action concludes with a good looking women’s match between the doubles specialist Katerina Siniakova and the Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng.
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Best of the Rest
As is always the case on the opening day of a Grand Slam, we have plenty of great action around the grounds and all of the courts are live streamed to allow us to watch it. Some of the seeded players dotted around the schedule includes Frances Tiafoe, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Leylah Fernandez and McCartney Kessler who are all part of an excellent schedule on Court 12 while Elina Svitolina and Karen Khachanov will be on Court 18 and elsewhere the likes of Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Linda Noskova, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Tallon Griekspoor, Donna Vekic, Alexei Popyrin, Amanda Anisimova, Diana Shnaider, Andrey Rublev and Jiri Lehecka are all in action.
Men’s Betting
There are a couple of bets that I like in the men’s draw on Monday. The first is Roberto Bautista Agut, whose form is likely to hold up a lot more than that of Cameron Norrie. Norrie has played two grass court matches this season and lost them both whereas Bautista Agut reached the semi-final at Queens where Carlos Alcaraz was too good for him and then won a couple of matches in Mallorca last week which might just have sharpened him up perfectly for this assignment. Norrie, like RBA, is a former semi-finalist here but one week in Geneva aside, his form has been ordinary for far too long. Bautista Agut will hang tough here and I just think he’ll find what he needs at the right time to take care of a low in confidence Norrie.
If there is to be a monster shock on the opening day then it could well come in the form of Nicolas Jarry beating Holger Rune. This is the least favourite surface for Rune who has never really convinced on it. Even when he won a couple of matches at Queens you could pick plenty of holes in his play. One of the holes you can pick is that he seems to weaken physically the longer a match goes on and while this match won’t be physically demanding, it will be played in fairly extreme heat. Jarry has conditions to suit here. We saw that at Roehampton last week when he made it through qualifying without dropping a set and bombing aces down. That serve is only going to gain speed on the firm and fast outside courts at Wimbledon so he could be a big problem for Rune who doesn’t go great on grass. If this goes deep you’d fancy the Chilean to get his man at a big looking 11/4.
Women’s Betting
I like a couple of bets in the women’s draw on Monday as well with the first one being over 21.5 games in the match between Beatriz Haddad Maia and Rebecca Sramkova. These two have met four times and they are 2-2 in those matches but this promises to be their tightest match. Haddad Maia is solid enough on grass but she rarely wins games comfortably and Sramkova has the tools to cause problems on this surface. She took care of the reigning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova at Queens before reaching the semi-final of Nottingham, seeing off three solid opponents in the process. This has three sets written all over it but two tight sets gets this line covered and I like the over here.
I was pleased to see Shuai Zhang come through qualifying because on this surface she can be an awkward player to face with all her slices and she can infuriate the most mentally and technically stable players let alone an Olga Danilovic who takes huge swings and is a tall player who likes the ball bouncing high so that she can hit through it. To be fair to Danilovic, when she saw the forecast she was probably licking her lips and the prospect of a firm court but then she got the draw and isn’t going to get much pace to work with at all. By the time Danilovic has got it all worked out Zhang could be past the winning line here. I think the value is on the Chinese player here against a Danilovic who has a losing record on grass in her career.
Tips
Back R.Bautista Agut to beat C.Norrie for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
Back N.Jarry to beat H.Rune for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with Betway
Back B.Haddad Maia vs R.Sramkova – Over 21.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
Back S.Zhang to beat O.Danilovic for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Bet365
