tennis | Thursday, August 25, 2022 12:15 PM

Thursday Tennis Best Bet: U.S. Open Women’s Qualifiers, Simona Waltert vs Eva Lys

Jon Reid

Simona Waltert vs Eva Lys Best Bet: Thursday, August 25th

Well, it’s back-to-back days with nice comeback victories on our women’s tennis selections, as Leolia Jeanjean blanks Ipek Oz in the third set to cover the -3.5 games handicap – no easy feat from being level through two sets!

For Thursday, we’ll stick with the action from New York City as two up-and-coming young guns on the women’s tour square off to keep their hopes of reaching the main draw alive.

Let’s take a deeper look into the match between Simona Waltert and Eva Lys.

In this article:

Simona Waltert vs Eva Lys Preview
Simona Waltert vs Eva Lys Best Bet

Simona Waltert vs Eva Lys Preview

August 25th, 22:00 UK Time

As an avid viewer of tennis at all levels, this is a match I’m very much looking forward to, as I’m a fan of both of these players’ games.

That said, played out on a hard court, I would have Simona Waltert as a bit more of a favourite.

The primary difference between these two comes from the service line, where the Swiss possesses a first serve that can help set up quick, easy points, whereas the more diminutive Lys really struggles to generate anything on either serve.

It’s a real problem for the 20-year-old Kyiv born German, as her game from the baseline is very well-rounded, but she often finds herself behind the eight ball thanks to one the weaker serves on tour.

The fact that she double faults at a frequency nearly as high as Waltert – who does have a high-risk, high-reward mentality in that regard – is also concerning, since she gives away almost as many points and can’t generate nearly as many easy ones.

With Waltert being a decent mover for her height and having enough rally tolerance to hang with Lys, it’s tough to see how the younger of the two avoids being put under constant pressure in her service games.

Simona Waltert vs Eva Lys Best Bet

Whilst Lys’ victory in the opening round was certainly impressive, it’s worth noting she beat a clay-court specialist that didn’t really have much pace to her game from the baseline, making it tough to seize control of points on return. That won’t be the case in this one.

It’s also worth pointing out that Lys’ two best wins on hard courts this year have come against Kamilla Rakhimova and Kathinka von Deichmann – meaning she’s won matches against plenty of players she should be beating, but this should be a much tougher task. As an underdog, Lys has won just one match from seven on hard courts this year. I’m no trend bettor, but it does reinforce the notion that she’s really had a tougher go of things when playing more legitimate competition.

I’ll back Waltert here at a relatively cheap price.