tennis | Petak, Maj 12, 2023 8:39 AM

Friday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Rome, Marketa Vondrousova vs Bianca Andreescu

Jon Reid

Marketa Vondrousova vs Bianca Andreescu Best Bet: Friday, May 12th

Well that was a tough one. Blinkova was never really close, and was routed by Anhelina Kalinina in straight sets. Didn’t help that she couldn’t convert a break point, but I’m not sure it would’ve made enough of a difference for the over 20.5 games bet anyway.

To wrap up the week, let’s take a look at a marquee second-round matchup between Marketa Vondrousova and Bianca Andreescu.

In this article:

Marketa Vondrousova vs Bianca Andreescu Preview
Marketa Vondrousova vs Bianca Andreescu Best Bet

Marketa Vondrousova vs Bianca Andreescu Preview

May 12th, 18:00 (UK Time)

It’s the last match scheduled on the Grandstand for a reason.

What a great matchup for such an early round, as the one-time French Open finalist and former top-15 player in the world in Vondrousova takes on former U.S. Open champion and the one-time world No. 4 in Andreescu.

With Rome playing so similarly to the slower courts of Roland Garros, you’d have to think that Vondrousova should enjoy the surface a tad more than her Canadian counterpart.

Andreescu found success here a year ago, but that was more of an outlier result for her on the dirt (she still only has 10 wins in WTA Tour-level main draws).

Further, this season she’s entering Rome with question marks surrounding her health, after suffering what looked like a brutal ankle injury just over a month ago. She returned in Madrid, but struggled against Xiyu Wang and faded down the stretch in the deciding set of that one.

Her aggressive style should be able to play across surfaces, but the hitting won’t be as effective here between the slower courts, conditions (playing at night means it’ll be even less lively than usual) and her opponent’s elite defending.

The Czech is 4-1 this season in her own right, but the wins haven’t been against the best group of players. That said, she has posted a slew of dominant set results along the way. When her game has been clicking, she’s been utterly dominant.

Marketa Vondrousova vs Bianca Andreescu Best Bet

With a rather large surface edge here, the potential to cover a larger games handicap even if this goes to a third set thanks to Andreescu’s potential concerns over remaining effective after a few hours of play and Vondrousova’s penchant for posting 6-2 set scores or better, I’m happy to give up a head start to the Canadian.

The only real concern is that Andreescu does tend to play up to her competition, but that is tough to quantify and a bit more of a narrative than something one should rely on.

I’ll take Vondrousova to win this one by a comfortable margin far more often than not.