tennis | Wednesday, April 26, 2023 8:32 AM

Wednesday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Madrid, Emma Raducanu vs Viktoriya Tomova

Jon Reid

Emma Raducanu vs Viktoriya Tomova Best Bet: Wednesday, April 26th

Strong performance from Linda Fruhvirtova, who was boosted on her first serve by the elevated conditions. She was strong from the baseline and had her forehand hold up surprisingly well. Credit Katie Volynets, whose performance was also pretty impressive considering her lack of real experience on the red dirt. I’m happy to get that wager over the line in straight sets.

Onto Wednesday, where we’ll preview the matchup that sees Emma Raducanu square off with Viktoriya Tomova.

In this article:

Emma Raducanu vs Viktoriya Tomova Preview
Emma Raducanu vs Viktoriya Tomova Best Bet

Emma Raducanu vs Viktoriya Tomova Preview

April 26th, 16:30 (UK Time)

Big spot for Raducanu, who could certainly use a win against Tomova who doesn’t offer much in the way of offensive tennis.

It was an absolute beatdown last week at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko for the Brit, whose ranking has plummeted and is in danger of dropping out of the top-100 if she doesn’t win this match against Tomova.

While the press was annoyed with her short answers on Tuesday, the focus for Raducanu is surely on finding a win on the court, as it may be her only chance to do so this fortnight, with a certain Iga Swiatek lurking in the second round for the winner of this one.

Much like our men’s preview that features Pavel Kotov into the main draw as a lucky loser, Tomova is also playing this coming off a loss in qualifying.

I, for one, really like Raducanu’s chances to pick up a much-needed win here.

Her season may not be according to plan, but her last four losses are all to really strong competition in Ostapenko, Swiatek, Bianca Andreescu and Coco Gauff.

Tomova isn’t anywhere near that level.

She doesn’t possess the firepower to take advantage of a potentially weak Raducanu second serve.

She’s weaponless and looks to extract unforced errors from her opposition, but the former U.S. Open champion has a great deal of rally tolerance and consistency from the baseline.

Raducanu is also the more aggressive player in this one and does far more in terms of creating angles and looking to construct points to finish off on her terms for my money.

Emma Raducanu vs Viktoriya Tomova Best Bet

To see Raducanu nearing the 1.70 price point is absolutely ludicrous for me.

Yes, she’s had some issues this season. Those struggles have come against some fierce competitors in the women’s game who can give her problems with their power.

Tomova should be a much larger underdog against someone of Raducanu’s calibre, especially since her strengths do not exploit the Brit’s weaknesses.

The 28-year-old may have won an ITF title recently, but she didn’t beat anyone remotely close to Raducanu’s level, nor did she manage to get through qualifying against players that, frankly, aren’t very strong either.

I’m happy to back Raducanu to get the job done and set up another tilt with Swiatek, and do so with a fairly large staking to boot.