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Mixed martial arts Wednesday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Finals - Fort Worth, Aryna Sabalenka vs Maria Sakkari
Aryna Sabalenka vs Maria Sakkari Best Bet: Wednesday, November 2nd
Well, Iga Swiatek was far from her best, and put in a decent performance on Tuesday evening. She still won 6-2, 6-3. The nightmare matchup for Daria Kasatkina saw another routine win for the world No. 1, and we were able to successfully cash in on both selections.
That makes for a decent start to the week, where we’ve seen a strong start across the two tours, with our lone loss having been two points from a straight sets win.
Onto Wednesday, where we’ll take a look at the match between Aryna Sabalenka and Maria Sakkari from Fort Worth.
In this article:
Aryna Sabalenka vs Maria Sakkari Preview
November 3rd, 00:00 UK Time
After seeing how slow these courts have been playing the last few days, and with these two women both having a match under their belts and in pole position to advance from pool play, I’m looking to back the underdog in this one.
Maria Sakkari came away with a surprising victory against the rock-solid Jessica Pegula on Monday in the opening day of play, and had her game that features strong movement, athleticism and the ability to inject pace into her serves and groundstrokes clicking at a fairly decent rate.
As an all-court player, Sakkari didn’t look too bothered by the conditions, especially when held up against her opponent in this one in Sabalenka.
The big-hitting Belarussian was struggling throughout to dominate with her first serve and powerful forehand as much as she wanted to, and often let out roars following certain points that may have felt like they’d never end.
It’s also worth remembering that outside of the first five or six games of the second set, she was clearly the second best player in her match, having been two points away from losing in straight sets. Her serve was far more vulnerable than one would expect, the courts allowed Ons Jabeur to make her play a lot of shots leading to unforced errors and her ace count ended up at just one in a long three-set contest.
Positive regression can probably be expected in that department, but with Sakkari being an athletic player and decent returner in her own right, she very well may be able to track down a fair amount of first serves as well.
It’s also worth noting that while positive regression may come in the form of a few more aces, she also only hit six double faults, a number that is relatively low for a long three setter. She led the WTA Tour this year in double faults hit, and if they creep back into her game, there’s just as good a chance we see even more struggles on serve in her second match.
Aryna Sabalenka vs Maria Sakkari Best Bet
Given the matchup involved in this one, Sabalenka’s struggles to hit through the courts in her opening match and Sakkari being lined as the clear outsider in the betting markets, I’m happy to have a standard-sized wager on the Greek to pull off the win and pick up her second group win.
- Selection: Sakkari to win
- Best Odds: 2.37 (Bet365)
- Stakes: 2/10
Odds as at 12:45 am on November 2nd, 2022. Odds may now differ.
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