Newly crowned Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki is scheduled to make an appearance at the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy this week where she is the top seed for the event. That’s going to be a long haul flight though after a long-haul through the Melbourne heat to get her hands on her first ever Grand Slam title. Fortunately for punters that should mean that there is some value in opposing her.
Top Ten Players
There are three top ten players including Wozniacki due to turn up at the event, with Jelena Ostapenko and Caroline Garcia in there as well. Garcia and Ostapenko would be on course for a semi-final showdown in the bottom half of the draw, so that fact alone does favour Wozniacki. However, the Dane had such a tough week and that Final at the Australian Open against Simona Halep was exhausting in the heat and you could see it.
So skip over the Dane who could have her hands full in the quarter finals against either Mona Bethel, Alize Cornet or rising star Daria Kasatkina and that would only be because of tiredness on Wozniacki’s part and nothing else.
Other Challengers
Kristina Mladenovic, the world number eleven is the reigning champion in St Petersburg and back with a pretty good draw ahead of her. Even if Wozniacki gets through the early stages, she would likely face the French Woman in the semi-finals and given the positives of Mladenovic’s run here last year, it would be totally worth running with the fourth seed instead of the top seed. The draw ahead for Maldensic is not without its challenges of course though.
She would have to face Dominika Cibulkova in the second round and that is a tough challenge as Cibulkova wen to the semi-finals here last year, but she has had a slow start to the new season. Julia Goerges is down in the bottom half of the draw and had a fairly positive start to the new year and after an early exit at the Australian Open is well rested to have a run at this and is good each-way value.
Top Betting Tips
This is a wide open field because if you take Wozniacki out of the picture, it is a really level playing field in St Petersburg. Mladenovic is not a bad option to roll with to go and produce a title defence at all, she’s a high-seed with a good draw ahead of her. Our other tip would be to have a good look at number two seed Ostapenko. Of the top seeds going into the tournament, she has the easiest draw of all with three wild cards and qualifier/lucky loser in her quarter of the draw. That sets her up for a good run.