In-form Bencic could return to tour with Linz triumph

WTA Linz Ladies
Tournament starts Monday, live on Eurosport from Thursday

It's back to Europe for some of the WTA players this week and the Linz Ladies can often take plenty of winning.

But this year the top seed, Magdalena Rybarikova, is ranked only 28th in the world and that could make for an open tournament on the indoor Decoturf-on-wood hard courts.

Event organisers have made some woeful decisions down the years, such as chucking out local wild-cards in favour of big-name players, and outright punters should be alive to the fact that late changes are possible.

Seeds Barbora Strycova, Sorana Cirstea and Katerina Siniakova could make their presence felt with no elite names making the trip the Austria. Strycova has been playing some excellent tennis in the Far East in recent weeks and her experience could prove a major advantage playing indoors.

However, with Belinda Bencic having already won a minor ITF event since returning from a long injury layoff, it could be worth chancing the Swiss to get it right at the first opportunity.

Bencic stands accused of rushing back too soon from injury in the past, but older players than her do it so it could be a case of learning with experience.

In terms of talent Bencic has enough to be a future world number one and given the strength of the field she is worth supporting.

Recommendation
B Bencic
2pts 7-1 bet365

WTA Hong Kong Open
BT Sport 1, 8am Monday

The draw for the Hong Kong Open was made only on Sunday and the tournament features a raft of high-class performers.

Qiang Wang is improving nicely and could offer value. The Chinese player should open with a victory against Kai-Chen Chang and may be playing well enough to trouble the likes of Elena Vesnina, Agnieszka Radwanska and Venus Williams

Recommendation
Qiang Wang
1pt each-way 25-1 bet365

Other matches
Shanghai MastersSky Sports Arena, from 6am Monday
Andrey Rublev will have enjoyed his time spent with elite rivals in recent weeks and the Russian, one of the best young players in the sport, could be getting used to spending life in tennis royalty.

The ATP NextGen star looks the bet to let his class shine through in a Shanghai Masters first-round clash with Damir Dzumhur, even though the Bosnian has been playing some of his best tennis of late too.

Recommendation
A Rublev
1pt 19-17 188Bet

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