WTA Miami Open predictions & tennis betting tips: Halep can build on promise

Free tennis tips, best bets and analysis for this week's events at WTA Miami Open, which starts on Tuesday

Where to watch

Live on Amazon Prime, from 4pm Tuesday

Best bet

Simona Halep
1pt 8-1 Coral, Ladbrokes

Tournament preview

Ashleigh Barty has recorded back-to-back wins in Miami but the Australian world number one has announced her shock retirement from the sport, which has left the door open for someone else to rise to stardom in the second leg of the sunshine double.

Polish star Iga Swiatek is tournament favourite after clinching silverware in Indian Wells last week but her draw is far more difficult in her follow-up bid in Florida, and she is a much shorter price to prevail again.

While Swiatek is in high spirits and rightly the market-leader, the courts in Miami will be playing much quicker than they were at Indian Wells and there are plenty of early obstacles for her to navigate her way past.

Sunday’s Indian Wells final victim Maria Sakkari, last week’s semi-finalist Paula Badosa, the refreshed Je?ena Ostapenko and teenage sensation Cori Gauff are just some of the heavy hitters in her half of the draw, which makes quotes of 5-1 look short enough for a repeat triumph.

The top half of the draw looks the place to attack and with top seed Aryna Sabalenka, who was a first-round casualty in California last week, operating way below her best there is a strong case to be made for rejuvenated Romanian Simona Halep.

The 30-year-old looks the obvious starting point after she made the last four at Indian Wells most recently and the signs suggest she is close to returning to the winners enclosure.

As well as making the semis last week, Halep reached the last four in Dubai in mid-February and the two-time Grand Slam champion is evidently edging back towards her best.

The Romanian is one of the best players on tour on her day and her draw is a decent one with British star Emma Raducanu and Karolina Pliskova, who are housed in her section, performing way below what would be expected.

Halep dropped only one set before bumping into Swiatek in a 7-6 6-4 semi-final defeat last week and it wouldn’t take much more to see the former number one go that bit better in Miami.

Sabalenka could be lurking in the quarter-finals but on current form Halep would be a worthy favourite and, while Anett Kontaveit would be the worst possible scenario in the last four, she should have little to fear after a few wins under her belt.

Halep is a 23-time winner on the WTA Tour, has lost only five of her 20 matches this year and clinched the Melbourne Summer Set in January, so is certainly in good enough nick to master her field in Miami.

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