tennis | Monday, June 27, 2022 7:23 AM (Revised at: Monday, June 27, 2022 7:43 AM)

Monday's WTA Tennis Best Bet: Wimbledon, June 27th

Jon Reid

WTA Wimbledon BEST BET: TSURENKO VS BURRAGE

Monday, June 27th, 11:00 UK Time

The Championships have finally arrived, and while the tournament won’t feature any ranking points this season, the tennis world is still fixated on the third major tournament of the year.

Opening action on Monday morning on Court 18 will be the young British wild card, Jodie Anna Burrage, taking on Lesia Tsurenko.

The first match of the first day presents an excellent opportunity to back a rather cheaply-priced underdog, as Burrage is in with a chance to pull the upset off the hop.

The 23-year-old has been fairly impressive this grass season, with some quality wins against WTA Tour-level competition and big servers in Petra Martic and Paula Badosa as an underdog, as well as some decent wins at the ITF level in Daria Snigur and fellow up-and-coming Brit Sonay Kartal.

Further, three of the four players that have managed to send her packing from grass-court tournaments this season were quick-court specialists Alison van Uytvanck and Shuai Zhang, as well as the most in-form player on tour this grass season in Beatriz Haddad Maia.

Her game is well-suited to the grass with a strong serve, big forehand and decent net game. With strong form and WTA wins leading into Wimbledon, momentum is also at her back.

As for Tsurenko, while the 7-1 record is impressive, I’m still not convinced she should be priced as this much of a favourite. She doesn’t have the most powerful game to find cheap points on the grass and the only matches she’s come through easily were against opponents much worse than Burrage.

Another potential red flag was the withdrawal prior to her quarterfinal match against Haddad Maia last week in Eastbourne. That could be a precautionary issue, but if she is feeling a bit of an injury, having her as a considerable favourite against an in-form opponent whose game plays well on the surface is even less reasonable.

Going to start The Championships off with a nice underdog selection backing the youngster playing on home soil.