ASB Classic Tennis Preview
The tennis brings some great early action to a new calendar year. The build-up for the Australian Open 2019 is already on and that means even at low-level tournaments we get good competitive action going on. That is the case out in Auckland at the ASB Classic where Caroline Wozniacki is the 3/1 favourite to win outright* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 30th, 2018 at 5:35 pm)
WTA Auckland Odds*
Caroline Wozniacki 3/1
Julia Goerges 9/2
Victoria Azarenka 7/1
Venus Williams 9/1
Barbora Strycova 22/1
Petra Martic 22/1
Amanda Anisimova 22/1
Margarita Gasparyan 22/1
Sei-Wei Hsieh 22/1
Eiguenine Bouchard 22/1
Monica Puig 22/1
33/1 bar
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 30th, 2018 at 5:35 pm)
WTA Auckland Preview
Caroline Wozniacki will be looking for another big start to a year. Wozniacki won the Australian Open early last year and before that she reached the final of Auckland. So she will have some backing here to kick things into high gear early. Because of the bigger draw of the WTA Brisbane at the same time, this isn’t as deep of a field as it could be.
The draw could bring about a tough quarter final situation for Wozniacki and that is because of the blockbuster first round match of Victoria Azarenka v Venus Williams. The winner of that will be expected to hit the quarter finals and meet up with Wozniacki there. So that is something to really look forward too and it will be their first meeting since 2015. Azarenka has won the last two meetings between them.
The reigning Champion is Germany’s Julia Goerges who goes into her title defence as the second seed. That was one of two titles for Goerges last season on the WTA Tour after taking the title in Luxembourg in what was her penulimtate appearance of last season. In last season’s Auckland final, Georges took a win over Wozniacki, causing a bit of an upset there in the showcase match.
Goerges is down in the bottom half of the draw. Also hovering around in the bottom half of the draw is fourth and fifth seed Petra Martic and Barbora Strycova respectively. It is going to be worth having a look at the action down there because there are some great young players in Sofia Kenin and Amanda Anisimova who could be set for breakout seasons. The latter is around the 22/1 odds mark* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 30th, 2018 at 5:35 pm). That’s the same mark as last year’s losing semi-finals, Su-Wei Hsieh.
Prediction
We are going to expect things from Amanda Anisimova here especially in starting against a qualifier so that gives her a chance to get into things. The top half of the draw is wonderfully wide open with Azarenka, Williams and Wozniacki grinding it out up there. The winner of that opening game between Azarenka and Williams is probably going to be worth backing. Right at the other end of the draw, Julia Goerges is decent value to get back to the final.
