The Wimbledon ladies’ singles has produced big-priced winners in each of the last two years. Our Andy Schooler bids to find another…
Tennis betting tips: Wimbledon ladies' singles
2pts win Elena Rybakina at 13/2 (General)
1pt e.w. Emma Navarro at 70/1 (General)
1pt e.w. Diana Shnaider at 100/1 (Sky Bet)
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Wimbledon, ladies’ singles
- All England Club, Wimbledon, London, UK
I wrote in my preview of the Wimbledon men’s singles about how there was only a small pool of potential champions.
The opposite is the case in the ladies’ draw which looks quite a puzzle to solve.
Some will suggest the obvious choice is at the top of the market.
Aryna Sabalenka is the world number one and has the power game which traditionally delivers results on the grasscourts.
Yet she’s failed to reach the Wimbledon final since first coming here in 2017, often being edged out by a player able to find a little higher level on the day.
Somewhat worryingly, that’s also been the case in the two Grand Slam finals so far in 2025, Sabalenka losing to Madison Keys at January’s Australian Open and Coco Gauff at the recent French Open.
In both matches there have been signs of her former mental frailty returning when the pressure has been applied.
At 3/1, she’s too short for me.
Of course, this is a tournament which has produced two big-priced winners in the past two years.
Last season, Barbora Krejcikova claimed the title having been sent off at 225/1. In 2023, her compatriot Marketa Vondrousova also won as a big outsider.
In what looks an open field, it’s more than tempting to try to find a player (or two) who could follow in the Czech pair’s footsteps.
I’m going to target the weaker quarters which, for me, are Q2 and Q3, headed up by Jasmine Paolini and Jessica Pegula respectively.
Let’s start in Q3 where Pegula will be well fancied following her warm-up title in Bad Homburg on Saturday. However, she’s got just one quarter-final on her Wimbledon record and has never beaten a top-40 player in SW19.
Confidence will be up, but I prefer to look elsewhere.
I’m also keen to swerve Mirra Andreeva, a rising star of the WTA Tour but one with limited experience on grass.
She’s gone 1-2 on it so far this season and lost a set 6-0 to Magdalena Frech in Berlin.
Krejcikova is in this section but withdrew in Eastbourne only a few days ago.
Given all this, I’m prepared to take a chance on EMMA NAVARRO.
This is the world number 10 yet the American is out at 70/1 for the title. That’s too big.
Given the last sentence, you’d perhaps expect her grasscourt record to be underwhelming but that’s not the case.
She was a quarter-finalist here 12 months ago, beating Gauff, and has twice reached the semis in Bad Homburg.
OK, this season hasn’t been her best but grasccourt warm-up results have shown some promising signs.
She beat a decent grasscourter in Beatriz Haddad Maia at Queen’s Club, while last week victories over Marta Kostyuk and former world number one Naomi Oaska were achieved before Navarro took a set off eventual champion Pegula.
While Navarro isn’t a former Grand Slam finalist – Krejcikova and Vondrousova both were – she did make the last four of the US Open less than a year ago so has experienced a deep run at a major. I don’t think she’ll be fazed, particularly given the section of the draw she’s landed in.
Former champs Petra Kvitova and Krejcikova could both be in her path to the last 16 but those two have both spent the past few days nursing injuries and you get the impression they will just be happy to make the start line, especially Kvitova given she’s announced this will be her last Wimbledon.
Andreeva and Pegula could follow but it would be no surprise if they weren’t around in week two and I’m happy to give Navarro a try at the price.
Over the Q2, Paolini isn’t the same form of last year when she unexpectedly managed to transfer claycourt form to the grass; she was crushed by Swiatek in Bad Homburg the other day.
Qinwen Zheng is the next highest seed in this part of the draw. Her big serve is a good weapon to have on this surface but she’s just 5-9 lifetime on grass, never winning three matches in succession on it.
Jelena Ostapenko is a former semi-finalist here and made the last eight in 2024. Haddad Maia and Amanda Anisimova are other options.
However, I’m keen to give DIANA SHNAIDER a chance.
Like Navarro, she’s an elite player – ranked 12th in the world – but you wouldn’t think so looking at the odds.
It’s just a year ago that she was winning the title in Bad Homburg – she would lose to Navarro at Wimbledon in round three.
Results on grass this year have lacked true sparkle – although had they done, we wouldn’t be getting 100/1 – but they have still been encouraging.
Wins over last year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist Donna Vekic, Katie Boulter and Frech have been decent enough, while Shnaider also won sets in defeat to both Vondrousova and Keys.
A crunching lefty forehand is a shot which can do some damage, while we’ve seen before on grass what the sliding lefty serve can do in terms of dragging opponents out of position, Kvitova being a case in point.
Admittedly, Shnaider hasn’t yet had that deep Grand Slam run, although the 21-year-old has reached round three in three of the last four, her best effort being a last-16 run at last year’s US Open.
For the record, Navarro and Shnaider are 8/1 and 12/1 respectively to win their quarters – good alternatives which eliminate the potential for semi-final heartache, of which this column has endured much in 2025.
Aside from Sabalenka, I haven’t mentioned too many from the top of the market but that’s because I’m unconvinced by many of them.
I do believe French Open champion Gauff can find a way to win on grass at some point but the fact is she’s yet top go beyond the last 16 here so I’m not sure there’s much value in her price.
Swiatek is another who has struggled to truly contend here – she has one quarter-final on her CV. She did play pretty well in Bad Homburg last week but found Pegula too good in the final and was unable to break serve which kind of sums up concerns about her on the faster surfaces. This is also a good time to point out that the Pole hasn’t won a title in more than a year now.
I also see little value now in Vondrousova’s price following her victory in Berlin recently, which came out of nowhere, and Keys is considerably shorter than in previous years, basically because she proved she could get over the Grand Slam winning line in Melbourne.
The one who makes most appeal from the market leaders is ELENA RYBAKINA.
The 2022 champion knows how to win here and has a major weapon in her serve, which is one of the best in the women’s game. She currently leads the WTA Tour for aces.
While Rybakina hasn’t been able to win again in SW19 yet – in fact the last eight championships have produced eight different champions – she’s gone close with runs to the semis and quarters.
The warm-up tournaments could have gone better, admittedly, but there were still quarter-finals at Queen’s and in Berlin.
At the former, Rybakina lost a tight match to the eventual champion, Tatjana Maria, while at the latter, she missed match points in defeat to Sabalenka.
I appreciate she won’t be for everyone but I think she has a solid title chance and will back her at 13/2.
Posted at 1825 BST on 28/06/25
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