After a very good week that came to an end on Sunday, this week has started in a positive way for the Tennis Picks.
Two more winners were put on the board on Monday, although I was very fortunate with the one involving Jelena Ostapenko. Anastasija Sevastova pulled out of her match with Daria Gavrilova, but the other two selections both were affected by the rain and will have to be completed on Tuesday.
I will say it is going to need something special from Elina Svitolina to turn around her position against Alize Cornet and that is simply to win the match. It is unlikely that she will cover and thus being the first losing selection of this week, while Nicolas Jarry and Pablo Cuevas will begin their match having just missed out on taking to the court on Monday.
Some of the players in the WTA tournament are going to have to play twice on Tuesday to keep the event in Eastbourne on track for a Saturday conclusion, but the weather doesn't look great in the morning and matches are likely going to be pushed back to Wednesday. We should still see enough tennis to ensure the majority of those scheduled for Tuesday are completed, but it is looking a very busy day with a delayed start very likely.
I am adding some selections from the matches to be played in Eastbourne on Tuesday here and I will be hoping those are all able to be completed on the day.
Johanna Konta - 3.5 games v Maria Sakkari: This is going to be the third time Maria Sakkari and Johanna Konta are going to face each other in 2019 and the previous two matches have both needed three sets to determine a winner. However the previous two matches have been on a hard court (Konta won) and on a clay court (Sakkari won) and this time they play on the grass where the British Number 1 should be the more comfortable of the two players.
Back in 2015 Johanna Konta made her first really memorable impact on the Tour when she put a run of wins together in Eastbourne. Her home tournament has been one that Konta has enjoyed over the years and she does tend to produce much better results than when she plays in Birmingham in the lead up to Wimbledon.
Last week Konta suffered another relatively early loss in Birmingham, but she was a strong winner in the First Round here on Sunday. The British player is one of the best grass court players on the Tour and Konta gets a huge amount out of her serve that can put any opponent under pressure.
She faces Maria Sakkari who also had a strong win in the First Round and who came close to beating then World Number 1 Naomi Osaka in Birmingham last week. The Greek player does not have the stand out numbers, but she has the mentality to come through difficult moments and win matches she perhaps shouldn't be and that makes Sakkari dangerous here, especially with the way she has challenged Konta in their two previous matches in 2019.
Maria Sakkari does not get as much out of her serve on the grass as Johanna Konta does, but she is someone who can be very effective once she builds some momentum. The serve is decent enough to cause problems for Konta who has to show some better returning if she is going to win Wimbledon over the next three weeks, but I also think Johanna Konta is going to run through some of her service games.
It does have the making of a kind of match that will see some twists and turns, but the key difference is that I believe Johanna Konta is someone who can win a set with a double break of serve compared with Maria Sakkari. The latter has played well in her two matches with Konta this season, but I think the grass gives the British player a distinct advantage and I will look for her to win and cover the number.
Simona Halep - 2.5 games v Su-Wei Hsieh: It was not the kind of clay court season that Simona Halep would have wanted and she failed to defend the title she won at the French Open in 2018. The Romanian has also dropped down to World Number 7 in the latest Rankings, but revenge is going to be a motivating factor for her on Tuesday when she faces Su-Wei Hsieh.
Last year at Wimbledon Simona Halep created 23 break points against Su-Wei Hsieh but she was not able to take the chances as well as she would have liked and it was Hsieh who earned the upset. For a first match on the grass courts this is a difficult one for Halep who will know she is not going to get the rhythm she will like, but instead Halep is going to have to deal with the slice and dice game Hsieh brings to the table.
The Hsieh return on the grass courts has been a key factor for her successes in recent years as a Singles player. With the slice the ball stays low and it can be very difficult for players to dig those balls out when Hsieh is willing to get to the net and put away volleys.
In her two matches with Halep, Hsieh has also created plenty of opportunity on the return of serve too so this is a match that is expected to feature a lot of break points between the two players. As I have said above, a first match on the grass is a difficult prospect for anyone and Halep is coming in off a disappointing clay court portion of the season when she is expected to be at her best.
However I will also add that Halep is very comfortable on the grass courts and has had some strong results on the surface before. The Romanian has one of the strongest returns on the WTA Tour and I do think Simona Halep will win out when it comes to the number of break points being created.
It does make the handicap mark perhaps a little harder to get a grip of, but I think Halep can cover even in a three set win. Su-Wei Hsieh is a player that can frustrate anyone she plays when at her best and I hate opposing her with big spreads, but this is not one of those numbers and I will look for Halep to win and cover.
Caroline Wozniacki - 4.5 games v Andrea Petkovic: Injury issues have affected Caroline Wozniacki's 2019 season on the court, but she comes to Eastbourne as the defending Champion. She will be very happy being back in the surroundings where she picked up a title, but Wozniacki will also be beaming having recent tied the knot with NBA player David Lee.
A comfortable win over Kirsten Flipkens will be a boost for Wozniacki who had suffered a First Round loss at the French Open. Being back at an event where she won the title will help her get build on the win over Flipkens, although I am a little concerned about the overall health of Wozniacki.
There is room for improvement for Wozniacki who did not win as many points behind her first serve as she would have liked in the First Round, but she did protect the second serve and returned very effectively. Caroline Wozniacki is going to need to show she can step up another level when she takes on Andrea Petkovic who has upset Daria Kasatkina in the First Round.
The German has long had to battle against her health which has seen her drop to Number 70 in the World Ranking having previously reached the top ten. Andrea Petkovic has simply not been as comfortable on the clay courts as Caroline Wozniacki and her second serve has been a serious vulnerability that can keep Petkovic under real pressure.
These two players haven't met since 2015 so I am not sure you can read too much into the head to head, although the fact that Wozniacki has won the last five matches can't be completely set aside. One of those was on the grass courts and I do think Wozniacki is the superior player on this surface as long as she isn't suffering from playing on Monday and being asked to come back out twenty-four hours later.
On the day the difference could be how well each player does on the second serve and I think that is an area where Wozniacki can edge the key points. This is a very big spread when you think of how Wozniacki has been struggling to put the wins together in 2019, but she is the better grass courter and I think her style of play will break down Andrea Petkovic over the course of a couple of sets.
Feliciano Lopez v Pierre-Hugues Herbert: The career looked to be on the downward spiral that would have had Feliciano Lopez contemplating retirement as he slipped outside of the top 100 of the World Rankings. However he will have a completely different mindset after winning the title in Queens for the second time in three years and that has actually seen him rise 60 odd places to Number 53 in the World Rankings.
He was also partnering Andy Murray in the Doubles last week and Lopez picked up another title in that format of the game too. It does mean he has played a lot of tennis over the last seven days and that is perhaps why he is such an underdog in this First Round match in Eastbourne which is played on Tuesday afternoon.
At 37 years old it will have taken a toll on Lopez, but he is facing an opponent in Pierre-Hugues Herbert who reached the Semi Final in Halle last week. The Frenchman is also someone who participates in the Doubles and will be partnering Andy Murray at Wimbledon, but his Quarter Final defeat in that format of the sport last week means he has not been taxed with as much tennis as Lopez has had to play.
In saying that I do think Lopez is someone I want to continue to back having had as much success getting behind the Spaniard last week. In recent years he has been able to back up strong runs to produce another on the grass courts n back to back years.
Feliciano Lopez reached the Final at Queens in 2014 and then won the title in Eastbourne the following week. In 2017 he won the title at Queens after reaching the Final in Stuttgart in the previous week and I do think the grass courts give Lopez the chance to run through his service games without expending as much energy as he would have to on other surfaces.
Over the last couple of weeks Lopez has held just under 95% of the service games he has played compared with Herbert's 82% mark. The Spaniard has also had a slightly superior return game and in recent years we have yet to see the best of Herbert on this surface as a Singles player.
This has also been a difficult match up for Herbert who has broken in just under 3% of return games played against Lopez across three previous matches against him. At the same time Lopez has broken in 10% of return games and i want to back the underdog who has had the superior grass court pedigree of the two player as well as the advantages on the numbers against each other.
I am not ignoring the amount of tennis Lopez had to play last week, but I think that is factored into this price and I will back the Spaniard to win the match.
MY PICKS: Johanna Konta - 3.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet Fred (2 Units)
Simona Halep - 2.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (2 Units)
Caroline Wozniacki - 4.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet Fred (2 Units)
Feliciano Lopez @ 2.37 William Hill (2 Units)
Weekly Update: 3-0, + 5.14 Units (6 Units Staked, + 85.67% Yield)
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