Wimbledon women's match predictions and tennis betting tips: Sloane overpriced

Free tennis tips, best bets and analysis for the women's singles matches on day one of Wimbledon.

Where to watch

BBC1, BBC2 & BBC red button, from 11am, Monday

Best bets

Sloane Stephens +5.5 games v Petra Kvitova
1pt 4-5 Hills

Venus Williams to beat Mihaela Buzarnescu
1pt 8-13 Hills

Anastasia Potapova +3.5 games v Donna Vekic
1pt 4-6 Betfair, Paddy Power

Harriet Dart +5.5 games v Elise Mertens
1pt 21-20 Coral, Ladbrokes

Sloane Stephens v Petra Kvitova

Wimbledon have seen sense and given the best match of the women's singles draw a place on Centre Court on the opening day of the tournament

Petra Kvitova has been busy in the lead-up to the grass-court Grand Slam tournament and made the semi-finals in Bad Homberg last week, when she was beaten in the semi-finals by 2018 Wimbledon heroine Angelique Kerber.

Two-time All England Club champion Kvitova opens with a clash against Sloane Stephens. But while the higher-ranked Czech obviously merits favouritism, the American looks the bet getting a handicap start of 5.5 games.

Stephens is a major winner herself – she won the US Open in 2017 and made the French Open final a year later. But she's also a former Australian Open semi-finalist and Wimbledon quarter-finalist so knows her way round all the Slams.

The Floridian isn't always the most reliable of performers in the lesser events, but she tends to make herself noticed in tournaments in which she wants to prosper and backing her to keep the scoreline respectable looks the way to go.

Mihaela Buzarnescu v Venus Williams

Venus Williams has not been making the headlines much this year, but the American veteran still enjoys coming to Wimbledon, where she has lifted the singles trophy on five occasions.

She won the last of those titles in 2008, but the fact that Williams still wants to compete aged 41 should give punters a clue as to which way to bet in her opener against Mihaela Buzarnescu.

The 33-year-old Romanian's only main-tour title triumph was a big one when she won the Silicon Valley Classic in California in 2018.

However, Buzarnescu failed to build on that result and, while she's attempting to climb back up the rankings after falling out of the top 100, she may struggle to deny one of the sport's greatest match-players.

Donna Vekic v Anastasia Potapova

Donna Vekic has been touted as a possible Grand Slam champion, but the Croat seldom makes life easy for herself on court.

She's up against one of the top young Russians in Anastasia Potapova on her Wimbledon bow and considering Vekic may struggle to dominate for a significant proportion of the match, the less-experienced outsider is worth a punt with a start on the total-games handicaps.

Elise Mertens v Harriet Dart

Elise Mertens should defeat Harriet Dart, but the British wild-card is a competitive sort and may not be embarrassed by the seeded Belgian.

Dart is no stranger to taking opponents to tiebreak sets but tends to fall away as the match wears on, but even an opening show like that could mean she warrants support with a hefty handicap start.

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