tennis | Wednesday, February 1, 2023 11:28 AM

Wednesday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Lyon, Alycia Parks vs Petra Martic

Jon Reid

Alycia Parks vs Petra Martic Best Bet: Wednesday, February 1st

Nice win from Anna Bondar in straight sets, as she was the player able to dictate more on her forehand and won far more points behind her first serve. I fear we won’t see the undervaluation of Bondar on hard courts in the markets much longer at this rate.

For Thursday, we’ll remain in Lyon and take a look at the match between Alycia Parks and Petra Martic.

In this article:

Alycia Parks vs Petra Martic Preview
Alycia Parks vs Petra Martic Best Bet

Alycia Parks vs Petra Martic Preview

February 1st, 14:00 (UK Time)

I’m actually pretty surprised to see Parks as essentially a coin flip in terms of price against Martic. Generally, at indoor events on quicker courts in a lower-level tournament, Parks has been overvalued and a strong favourite thanks to her late-season form in 2022 and her massive first serve.

Granted, she hadn’t played anyone as strong as Martic in that December stretch of indoor French 125K events, but there are a few reasons to believe she should be able to translate her success to this match as well, despite the increased quality of her opposition.

I’m not the most keen to back the Croatian’s style on lower-bouncing, quick hard courts. The second serve, as well as the forehand are both topspin-heavy. While that may confound Parks for a few games, the fact is, those shots should sit up nicely, right in the American’s ideal strike zone, allowing her to tee off and hit some huge groundstrokes, allowing her to score some easy points. We actually saw Martic play another rather tall, big-serving, big-hitting player in the opening round in Kristina Mladenovic and she narrowly escaped (7-5 in a deciding set). Parks is in better form, double faults less (though not a whole lot less), hits fewer unforced errors and has a much more promising future. I’m not sure Martic will pass this test.

In essence, I don’t know what Martic does to really take time away from Parks and I’m not confident in her ability to coax the errors from the 22-year-old. Her serve isn’t as big, she doesn’t hit nearly as many winners from the baseline and the courts don’t favour her spin-heavy style.

Alycia Parks vs Petra Martic Best Bet

From form to conditions to courts to being the player more likely to dictate from the baseline, Parks has the edge.

I’m normally on the other side of this equation, steadfast in my belief that Parks is overvalued by the market indoors. This time around, however, I’m more than happy to back her in a match I believe she should be a pretty solid favourite in.