The WTA tennis betting this week is focused on Baku, Azerbaijan. This is based on the Caspian Sea and is an important marker in the season, as it is the start of the summer hard court season, which will culminate in the US Open. This is an interesting tournament to focus on, as we have not seen too many big stars out in the women’s game since Wimbledon. There is a big Russian influence at the event, led by Vera Zvonareva, but we have already lost Britain’s Elena Baltacha from the Baku Cup in the first round. Baltacha was seeded as 6th for the tournament, and was expecting her to get through, but she lost out to the Ukraine’s Mariya Kottseva. Would definitely want to be looking towards one of the powerful Russian players here for your WTA Baku Cup tennis betting, and Vera Zvonareva will be your top bet at 11/10 with Bet365 as outright favourite. That is actually not too bad value on her because the rest of the field is not to strong when you look at it. The draw looks pretty comfortable as well for Zvonareva as the highest seed she can meet at the quarter final stage is eighth seed Evgeniya Rodina (ranked 77th in the world). There is one other player worth looking at in your tennis betting here from the top half of the draw for the Baku Cup, and that is Ekaterina Makarova. Makarova 10/1 at Victor Chandler, can be a tricky player to face, as she is a left hander and should move through the tournament well. If you are basing things on ranking and who on paper should win, then you will be expecting to see Vera Zvonareva in the final of the Baku Cup.
Down in the bottom half, you are looking at a big Russian presence as well for your betting. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 4/1 at Victor Chandler, is the number two seed in the tournament, and the Russian, who is ranked 13th in the world is always a great dark horse bet for tournaments. She has a lot of power to her game, and her big serves enables her to out gun a lot of her opponents. You would look at her and expect her to get through this half of the draw, with perhaps third seed Elena Vesnina (33rd in the world) the likeliest to challenge her for a place in the final. Vesnina 15/2 at Victor Chandler has made it to five WTA Tour finals in her career, but has yet to win one, so she is always pretty motivated at events like this. That really is the extend of the main threats in the tournament. As for a WTA tennis betting tip, then would look towards Pavlyuchenkova. The thing about Vera Zvonareva, is that she is still chasing her best game at the moment. We have not seen the best of her for a long time, and even at the Grand Slams she has had her struggles against lower seeded opposition. She is a class act, she has the full game to win titles, but she just is not on top of her game. Zvonareva could really use this as a springboard forward before the WTA hits North America as a build up to the US Open, as she needs a boost of confidence and form. Therefore, because of the underdog threat of Pavlychenkova, as she is rapidly rising in the game, and heading towards the top ten at the moment we will go with the second favourite to take the glory here.
WTA Baku Winner Odds
Vera Zvonareva: 11/10 at Bet365
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: 4/1 at Victor Chandler
Elena Vesnina: 15/2 at Victor Chandler
Katerina Makarova: 10/1 at Stan James
Kateryna Bondarenko: 20/1 at Stan James
