It is the first WTA Premier 5 event of the new season as Qatar Total Open fires up this week. All but one of the top ten are set for appearances in the Doha field and extra some extra spice to proceedings is that the number one spot is up for grabs once again. Current number one Caroline Wozniacki will be hoping to hold off challenger Simona Halep but the Dane has a tough road ahead of her at the tournament.
Doha Each Way Options
Immediately off the bat, largely because of injuries and not having gotten their seasons up and running yet so far in 2018, Jelena Ostapenko, Garbine Muguruza and Johanna Konta are all worth a pass in this one. That narrows things down just a little bit. Karolina Pliskova is another one who is under a bit of pressure to perform but she should be fresh as this is her first game back since losing to Halep in the Australian Open quarters.
The best each way options for the tournament are Julia Goerges and Elina Svitolina at 22/1 and 12/1 respectively at Unibet* (betting odds taken January 12th, 2018 at 00:55 a.m.). Svitolina is the reigning champion here and this is the event that twelve months ago, really put her on the map. An injury ruined her Grand Slam run in Melbourne, but if she’s back fit she will contend. Julia Goerges continued her great form this year with a run to the semi-finals in St Petersburg recently. She’s up in the top ten now for the first time in her career and has some momentum.
Kerber to contend
Angelique Kerber is back to her very best and she is the one who can take the shine off both Wozniacki and Halep. She has been outstanding so far this season and is looking for her second title this year and no-one is going to want to face the German at the moment. Wozniacki was stopped in the quarter finals in St Petersburg as expected after her epic Grand Slam win in Melbourne, while Halep has been to the final of both tournaments played this year.
There’s some big in-form players around at the moment including Petra Kvitova who came from nowhere to land the St Petersburg title recently. Overall though it is main contender Halep who has the best-looking draw ahead of her as Wozniacki and Kerber could clash in the quarters with potentially Svitolina lurking at the semi-final stage. Halep shouldn’t have as many challenges and can power her way to a victory.
Qatar Open Odds*
Angelique Kerber 6/1, Simona Halep 7/1, Petra Kvitova 9/1, Caroline Wozniacki 12/1, Garbine Muguruza 9/1, Karolina Pliskova 11/1, Elina Svitolina 12/1, Maria Sharapova 13/1, Madison Keys 20/1, bar 22/1* (betting odds taken January 12th, 2018 at 00:55 a.m.).
Federer headlines Rotterdam
There are some minor tournaments knocking around the ATP this week with the New York Open and the Argentina Open both 250 World Tour Events. It leaves the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Rotterdam as the headlining act. 2017 champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is back to defend his title. However, everyone else is going to be overshadowed by the appearance of Roger Federer in the draw who has to reach the semi-finals to remarkably get back to number one in the world. Both Federer (2012) and Wawrinka (2015) are previous winners of the event.
Interestingly Federer could face his fellow Swiss competition Stan Wawrinka in the quarter finals. Alex Zverev is in the top half of draw and could be a decent semi final punt if he can get up ahead of steam which has been lacking a little bit this year from him. Down in bottom half the draw, things are headed up by second seed Grigor Dimitrov who has a pretty handy run ahead of him. There could be a tricky quarter final scrap against Lucas Pouille, but other than that it should be plain sailing for Dimitrov.
The top half of the draw is going to be the toughest to come through so things favour Dimitrov a bit in this one and the Bulgarian looks handy value to Reach the Final with Unibet for the Rotterdam event. Given the class that Federer has though plus the incentive of getting back to world number one, it would surprise exactly zero people if Feds won it.
