Blink Bets@BlinkBets
Tennis
🇨🇳 Qinwen Zheng ML
🇧🇪 Elise Mertens ML
5 units at -123
I've said it so many times but Qinwen Zheng is the most talented player in the history of the WTA and she has the highest ceiling. I don't expect people to agree but that's because most people just see results and stats, and lack the ability to analyse a player. Even the experts aren't capable of this. I backed Qinwen to win Gold at the Olympics and during one of her matches, I remember one of the commentators saying 'she has potential to maybe win a slam in the future, but not on this surface' or something along those lines. Obviously the Olympics aren't a slam but this is the level of analysis that the 'experts' have. As yous know, Zheng went onto win Gold and she beat Iga Swiatek in straight sets along the way - this was when Swiatek was at her best and a monster on clay. Even these days, people don't talk about Zheng when talking about the best players on the WTA. No need to get into that right now but just understand that when Zheng is at her best, no one can beat her. Obviously, she is not at her best right now as she just returned from a big injury - so our job is to figure out how close to/far from her best she is and then assess the probability of her winning this match. Well, I have acc been very happy with what she has showed so far in her comeback from injury. Even in her first tournament back, she brought a pretty good level - or at least a level much higher than I was expecting at that stage. I also like that she has played another couple of tournaments since then and got a few matches under her belt. Now this will be her first clay match of the year but she has been in Madrid for a while now, training. What's also important to note is that her opponent, Kenin, is the same one she faced in her first match back. After dropping the first set, Zheng dominated the next two 6-1 6-2. She won 83% of first serve points and hit 20 aces. Now yes this is clay, but these are altitude conditions which means the ball flies quicker through the thinner air and so her serve will still be a weapon. Kenin is also a poor returner so I expect a lot of free points for Zheng. Kenin has also been in poor form all year and ok she has won a match here but that was against Ashlyn Krueger. Every version of Zheng is a million times better than Krueger. Folks, Kenin has nothing in her game to trouble Zheng, absolutely nothing. This is all about Zheng. The match with the most rust would have been her first one back and yet she still handled Kenin very convincingly in the end. Her level has got better and better since then, and although she withdrew from Stuttgart - I don't really have any big injury concerns. I acc like that she has had a nice training block going into this one. As for Mertens, the big edge here is the surface. We have already cashed a max bet against Eala this clay season. Eala's movement on clay is a big disadvantage - she just doesn't know how to slide properly. Mertens is nothing special but she is a solid player and has a lot of experience on this surface - that alone is enough to beat Eala on clay. This clay season, Eala needed Grabher to not take break points, then lost to Ostapenko in straight sets, a very out of form Leylah Fernandez in straight sets and then beat an injured Pavlyuchenkova. If you know how to hold a racquet, how to move on clay and are not injured - then you should be beating Eala on this surface. I think this is great value on both players.