tennis | Monday, February 20, 2023 9:29 AM

Monday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Merida, Kimberly Birrell vs Anna Bondar

Jon Reid

Kimberly Birrell vs Anna Bondar Best Bet: Monday, February 20th

Dominant win to wrap a nice week of women’s selections on Friday from Iga Swiatek.

This week, the tour shifts to Dubai and Merida, Mexico, and it’s the latter of the two that we’ll focus on for Monday’s selection, previewing the match between Kimberly Birrell and Anna Bondar.

In this article:

Kimberly Birrell vs Anna Bondar Preview
Kimberly Birrell vs Anna Bondar Best Bet

Kimberly Birrell vs Anna Bondar Preview

February 20th, 23:30 (UK Time)

We’ll once again look to back the Hungarian here as an underdog. As we previewed a few weeks ago when she played Nuria Parrizas Diaz in Lyon, Bondar tends to be undervalued by the market on hard courts, since she is more natural on the clay.

We’re seeing that play out once again this week, as she takes on the Aussie in Mexico.

With her four losses this year all coming to tour-level pros (two of those in three sets, no less), I’m surprised she’s the underdog heading into this.

Her first serve translates well and she is solid from the baseline, with the ability to play attacking tennis on her forehand wing.

Birrell has a well-rounded game in her own right and prefers hard-court tennis, but we haven’t seen her really prove herself at the WTA Tour level just yet and I’m happy to oppose her if she’s going to be given this type of respect in the betting markets.

Kimberly Birrell vs Anna Bondar Best Bet

I’m more than happy to back Bondar here. The established tour pro taking on the Aussie who hasn’t yet proven herself at this level on a consistent basis.

Give me underdog odds and I’m happy to stake out a bigger position here. She may not be a guarantee, but she’s incredibly undervalued here against the qualifier due to Birrell’s form against ITF-level competition.