tennis | Monday, June 26, 2023 8:01 AM

Monday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Bad Homburg, Bianca Andreescu vs Sonay Kartal

Jon Reid

Bianca Andreescu vs Sonay Kartal Best Bet: Monday, June 26th

Nice easy win for Ashlyn Krueger over Lucrezia Stefanini, and the promising American prospect ended up going on to win the title at the 125K event in Gaiba.

Monday brings us a pair of new tournaments on the WTA Tour and starting Tuesday, the women will also see the qualifying campaign for Wimbledon get underway.

For our written preview, we’ll look at the 250 event in Bad Homburg, Germany and the match between Bianca Andreescu and Sonay Kartal.

In this article:

Bianca Andreescu vs Sonay Kartal Preview
Bianca Andreescu vs Sonay Kartal Best Bet

Bianca Andreescu vs Sonay Kartal Preview

June 26th, 16:30 (UK Time)

Andreescu is in serious need of a few wins at the moment after a very average start to her season. What better place to get them than in Bad Homburg – an event that saw her reach the final (and get to within a set of the title) a year ago?

With this draw, the 23-year-old should be able to find that form she’s hoping for prior to Wimbledon. She starts with Kartal, a Brit who has a pesky consistent style and who never gives up on a point. Other than that and having played growing up on grass courts, there isn’t much she offers in this matchup for my money.

Andreescu isn’t incredibly error-prone, is more talented and has accomplished more at the top of the game by a wide margin. Her game is also far more capable in terms of offensive play.

Her serve is much stronger, she can dictate far more on her backhand wing and she’s decent enough at net in cases where Kartal is tracking everything down from the baseline and she’s forced to endpoints at the net.

Andreescu has had her struggles this year, but a significant number of her losses have come against players like Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, Veronika Kudermetova and other players ranked at the top of the game or who were and are making their way back into the top-25 and top-50 following an injury (like Marketa Vondrousova).

The fact is, she simply hasn’t really been beaten by anyone of Kartal’s calibre in quite some time.

Bianca Andreescu vs Sonay Kartal Best Bet

Perhaps the market is looking at this being the week prior to a grand slam event. That would make sense, but the fact is, Andreescu does have to defend finalist points here from a year ago. Along with needing some match wins on the grass prior to the biggest grass-court tournament (and biggest tournament overall) in all of tennis, there are no motivational concerns in my mind.

I have Andreescu as a five-game favourite here and I could make the case for a 5.5-game handicap as being the correct number. At just three games, I’ll be looking to play this for one of the biggest stakes of the season.