tennis | Thursday, December 22, 2022 9:16 AM (Revised at: Friday, December 23, 2022 9:04 AM)

2023 Women's Tennis Season-Long Future Best Bets: 4 Value Bets for the 2023 Season

Jon Reid

2023 WOMEN’S TENNIS SEASON-LONG FUTURE BEST BETS: Thursday, December 22nd

For Thursday, we move on to the women’s season-long bets that appear to provide some value to punters. We’ve got a nice variety of markets to chat about as well, with the “Player to Win a Grand Slam” market joining a few rankings-based markets to bet!

Let’s get into them!

In this article:

2023 Women’s Tennis Season-Long Future Preview
2023 Women’s Tennis Season-Long Future Best Bets

2023 Women’s Tennis Season-Long Future Preview

2023 Tennis Season

First up, I’m going to back fan-favourite Ons Jabeur to clear one of the final hurdles and actually win a grand slam in 2023. The Tunisian is in her best career form, has a complete game, is playing on a relatively weak WTA Tour, has the ability to win on every surface which helps maximise our chances of cashing this prop, and in 2022 we saw her make a pair of grand slam finals – coming up one set short of lifting the trophy at Wimbledon. The major weakness left for her is the mental game, but with odds nearing 4.00, I’m more than happy to give this one a go.

The next few bets are going to be based on rankings come 20 November 2023, and I feel that there are several players worth backing to better their standing from where it is at the moment.

The first in Qinwen Zheng. In terms of talent, Zheng is firmly a top-15 talent on the current iteration of the WTA Tour. She moves decently, has a massive serve, can overpower just about anyone from the baseline and plays well across all surfaces. In terms of reasons, I think her ranking will jump from 28th. First, she’s only defending one second-week run at the points-rich grand slam events and even that run in Paris was only the fourth round. Plenty of points on offer for her. Secondly, she’ll likely be playing more of the big events in 2023 and doesn’t have many other deep runs to defend. Finally, she only needs to pass three players to reach the top 25. Martina Trevisan is a clay specialist ripe for the picking, her compatriot Shuai Zhang is clearly on the decline, Victoria Azarenka is becoming more and more serve and power-reliant as the years pass by, and there are another 5-10 players I could make the case for her passing this season as well.

Next up, Barbora Krejcikova. In a game that is lacking for elite talent, Krejcikova is primed to rocket back to the top of the game. Her clay-court prowess is well known, after she won the French Open as a massive outsider (200/1!) in 2021, but her hard-court game has improved by leaps and bounds and I’ve been incredibly impressed with the added pace on her first serve. Best of all? After an injury kept her out for months in 2022 and it took her another few months to really find her footing back on tour, there are almost no points for her to defend outside of the opening weeks of the season and the month of September. Count me in as a big believer that we see her solidify her position at the top of the game in 2023, barring another injury.

Finally, let’s take another higher-odds punt and back Marie Bouzkova in her season-long head-to-head market against Beatriz Haddad Maia and Liudmilla Samsonova. While it won’t be an easy task, I think she finishes above those two far more often than the odds would suggest. The Brazilian was a revelation in 2022, bursting onto the scene and easily setting a new career-high in the rankings, but she tailed off towards the end of the year, and a reversion to being in the 75th to 100th range isn’t out of the question. Even a dip to being ranked 40th would likely see her out of contention for this bet.

With Samsonova, I’m always content opposing a player that is a little too one-dimensional for me. Another player who went on an absolute tear at one point in 2022 (she won 13 matches in a row leading into the U.S. Open fourth round), Samsonova also managed to lose seven of eight matches during the clay and grass court swings. The juxtaposition between the hot and cold isn’t even all that surprising, considering her game style. It’s a very raw power-based game and if errors creep in, she doesn’t really have a Plan B to fall back on.

As for Bouzkova, she’s one of the elite movers and defenders on tour. Her abilities on surfaces other than hard courts could use some work, but she’s the polar opposite of the other two in-game style. Counter punching, consistency and shotmaking are the name of the game for her, and that brand of consistency is one I’m happy to back to take her another step forward in 2023.

2023 Women’s Tennis Season-Long Future Best Bet

2023 Tennis Season

Barring injuries (always a possibility in a physically demanding, individual sport), I find it really hard to believe Zheng will finish her season outside the top 25 looking in. The 1.57 price tag is a bit steep, but my numbers have her finishing in the top 25 more than two third of the time, and that’s with potential injuries priced in. Value is value, even with bets in the 1.57 range.

Krejcikova is far too talented, consistent and has added too much to her game for me not to love a price of 1.80 for her to finish inside the top 15. The schedule, along with the relative weakness of the current tour also play in her favour and she only needs to jump seven players to cash a top-15 bet. I could make a case that she has a great shot of passing 10+. If she was listed in the top-10 market, I’d bet that as well, but top-15 will have to do.

Selections: