tennis | Monday, June 13, 2022 7:49 AM

Monday's WTA Tennis Best Bet: Birmingham, June 13th

Jon Reid

WTA Birmingham Best Bet: Dart vs Osario

Monday, June 13th, 12:30 UK Time

The second of three weeks of grass tournaments leading into Wimbledon is upon us, with the women in Berlin and Birmingham.

Monday’s WTA selection comes from the latter of the two tournaments, where the field may not be as strong, but there’s certainly value to be had in the betting markets.

The first bet of the week is on Harriet Dart, who looks to build on an outstanding performance in Nottingham a week ago. She’ll have a great chance to do so and pick up at least one win as she takes on Camila Osorio in her first-round match.

The 25-year-old has a game well-suited to the grass courts of her home country, with a pretty decent service, and the ability to generate pace from the baseline. Her shots are also flat, which helps with keeping the ball low and takes even more time from opponents trying to track them down and get them back. That’ll be key against a ball retriever in Osorio.

After beating Donna Vekic and Camila Giorgi as a big underdog, Dart also took the first set off of grass-court extraordinaire Alison Riske, before falling in three. Proven this season against much sterner competition than she will play in Osorio, Dart should be a much larger favourite than we’re seeing her here against the Colombian.

With a chance to crack the top-100 and set a new career-high ranking (her current career-high rank is 99th), Dart will be looking to get as deep as possible this week.

As for Osorio, it’s been a terrific two years for her as she’s burst onto the scene. It’s no secret, however, that her preferred surfaces are clay and slower hard courts. Now in her second season on the grass, Osorio hasn’t really impressed all that much.

She has one stand-out victory, stunning an erratic Ekaterina Alexandrova in the first round at Wimbledon last year, but outside of that, she’s been nothing to write home about. She was sent packing convincingly in the second round by Aryna Sabalenka, her wins were against fellow clay courters and an ITF player in qualifying and her other matches on grass were quick dismissals by Katie Boulter and Maria Sakkari.

Preferring a higher-bouncing ball – which explains the wins over the clay courters that likely used more spin on their shots – the grass isn’t going to be a forgiving surface for Osorio. Her style is also based around making a lot of balls and prolonging points, with the ability to hit through open space when she gets a short, attackable ball herself. With grass courts shortening points and allowing players to find winners with more ease, her style also seems somewhat incompatible with the surface.

As alluded to earlier, I have Dart priced as a much stronger favourite in this one and am willing to back this one with larger stakes than normal.