Women's Wimbledon outright predictions: Gauff can complete Grand Slam hat-trick
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- Coco Gauff has won 17 of her last 20 WTA Tour matches
- Jasmine Paolini has won 19 of her last 25 WTA Tour matches
- Recommended bets:
- Coco Gauff to win Wimbledon
- Jasmine Paolini to win & each-way
Aryna Sabalenka tops the Wimbledon women’s singles market and perhaps that is not too surprising after she finished runner-up in both the Australian and French Opens this year.
As a rule, the world number one is very much the one to beat these days, although as those finals defeats in Melbourne and Paris show, Sabalenka is far from unbeatable.
She is 5/2 for Wimbledon then it’s 11/2 Elena Rybakina, the 2022 All England Club heroine, 7/1 Iga Swiatek and 8/1 Coco Gauff, who upended Sabalenka in the Roland Garros title match.
Sabalenka has a new chief challenger
This time last year going into the grass-court major, Swiatek and Rybakina were deemed to be Sabalenka’s biggest challengers. But the world rankings show that Gauff, who is slowly but surely inching her way closer to the top spot, is now the chief threat to the Minsk machine.
That said, the oddsmakers still believe Rybakina, who was brilliant in the London Slam in 2022 but less so on more recent visits to SW19, has what it takes to win multiple Wimbledons.
Swiatek, still the queen of clay to many observers, has tended to labour on grass in comparison. However, the Pole is due to contest the WTA Bad Homburg 500 Series final on Saturday so the penny may be dropping on the terrain for Swiatek.
Gauff was superb on the clay this year, following runner-up placings in Madrid and Rome with a title in Paris. The American has been stepping things up in her bid to top the WTA chart, but the oddsmakers may feel she could be jaded on grass after such a busy time on clay.
Gauff faces a potentially tough opener in London against Dayana Yastremska too.
Wide-open tournament means big names not certain to prosper
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Recent results at Wimbledon, however, mean there are no assurances that the star names will still be going late in the second week of the grass-court major.
It is no surprise that Wimbledon is probably the most open of the Grand Slam tournaments because the players spend a lot less time on grass than they do on hard or clay courts.
Therefore, there is the very real possibility that viable longshots can go all the way and will enter considerations.
Prediction
Gauff has played only one competitive match on grass — she lost to qualifier Xinyu Wang in Berlin but the Chinese player went on to reach the semi-finals of that tournament.
The 21-year-old from Atlanta took it easier last week and stayed away from the main-tour action, so that could aid her preparation for Wimbledon.
Yastremska is likely to afford Gauff a tough first-round test, but if the second seed prevails it could afford her much confidence for the rest of the fortnight.
With doubts surrounding some of the big guns, an interest can also be had on Italy’s Jasmine Paolini.
Last year’s Wimbledon and French Open runner-up upset Gauff on clay in Rome so remains in good heart.
