dailyloe.com – The second round of WTA Madrid begins on Thursday. The opening round is the Round of 96 at this expansive tournament. Now we move into the Round of 64. Players who got first-round byes begin their journeys in Spain.
Will the winners of first-round matches have the momentum needed to knock off idle players? Or will higher-ranked players overwhelm the underdogs? We will find out soon enough. Here are select matches for Thursday and their best bets.
Leylah Fernandez faces Julia Grabher at 9:30 EST. The head-to-head record is 2-0 in favor of Fernandez. Fernandez had a good week in Stuttgart last week. She made a solid run to the quarterfinals before narrowly losing to eventual champion Elena Rybakina.
Fernandez played well enough to make the No. 2 player in the world nervous. That should give her confidence coming into Madrid. Julia Grabher is coming off a first-round victory over Spaniard Paula Badosa. Grabher was priced as a big underdog but won the match outright.
Two confident players are meeting here in the second round. Fernandez should win, but a straight-set win does not pay much. You have to look at the game spread. Fernandez should win by at least four games, but seven or eight feels like too much against Grabher.
Grabher is playing confidently. The price indicates Grabher is getting an especially good return on investment. Fernandez will need to be very sharp to cover a medium-level spread. Lean to Grabher. Grabher +5.5 games is a value bet at odds of 2.03 on 1xBet.
Hailey Baptiste faces Kaitlin Quevedo at 11:00 EST. The head-to-head record is 1-0. Baptiste is ranked No. 32, over 100 spots above Quevedo. Baptiste has lost two of her last three matches since her run to the Miami quarterfinals in late March.
Baptiste is not especially comfortable on clay. Quevedo just defeated tennis legend Venus Williams in the first round in Madrid. The matchup was favorable, but Quevedo did not waste the opportunity. She will try to build on that match against Baptiste.
The price for a Baptiste win is not great. Baptiste is not comfortable on clay, as shown by her recent loss to lower-ranked opponent Iryna Shymanovich in Rouen. Shymanovich is currently ranked No. 174. It does not seem worth it to bet on Baptiste.
