WTA Wimbledon Day Two Tips

WTA Wimbledon Day Two Tips: Cornet value to oust seed Putintseva

After a rain-affected opening day, the ladies singles at Wimbledon continues with action from the top half of the draw. Returning to discuss Tuesday's card is Dan Weston...

Swiatek vs Fett among plenty of perceived mismatches on day two

Although there's a few matches taking place on Tuesday from the rain-affected bottom half of the draw, Iga Świątek headlines the top half of the draw which takes place on day two, and the top seed and tournament favourite faces qualifier Jana Fett in the opening round.

While there's certainly questions which Swiatek has to answer regarding her level on grass, it's unlikely that the Croatian player will be able to shock Swiatek in her opener. Tougher tests await.

Joining Świątek as a very strong pre-match favourite are the likes of Bianca Andreescu, Paula Badosa, Petra Kvitova and Cori Gauff, who all look well set to make round two, and there are a number of theoretical mismatches on the schedule - as is always the case in round one of Grand Slam tournaments.

Cornet with better grass record than Putintseva

Looking at some of the matches where matters should be more competitive, the French veteran Alize Cornet is a slight 1.84 favourite to get past 27th seed Yulia Putintseva, and Cornet has greater grass court pedigree than the Kazakh, whose career record on the surface is pretty unimpressive.

Cornet got to the semi-final of the Bad Homburg warm-up event recently, eventually losing to winner Caroline Garcia but recorded a very strong win in that event, beating Angelique Kerber in the quarter-finals. On this surface, I think Cornet has enough of an edge to be a shorter-priced favourite.

The surface should also be something of a leveller between Jil Teichmann and Alja Tomljanovic, or in fact even more than a leveller. Despite being a strong player on other surfaces, Teichmann has never won a career main tour match on grass, while Tomljanovic is pretty competent on the surface. The Australian is 1.58 to get the win.

Brits Dart and Boulter strong favourites to progress

Several Brits are also favourites to get wins on day two, with Harriet Dart just 1.18 to get past the Swiss player, Rebeka Masarova.

Dart impressed in the grass warm-up events, picking up five underdog victories and competing respectably against both Alison Riske and Petra Kvitova in defeats. Masarova should be a downgrade on most of the opposition she's faced in the last month on grass.

In addition, Katie Boulter, who also did well on grass in the warm-up events, is a strong 1.22 favourite to defeat the French clay-courter, Clara Burel. This is a really decent example of how the surface and familiarity on it makes such a difference - on clay, Burel would be favourite.

Finally, I don't know much about another Brit in action, Sonay Kartel, but she reached the semi-final of the Ilkley ITF event recently and won a 25 level ITF in Nottingham on hard court last month also.

It's tough to price up her match against Danka Kovinic, who has had some injury issues of late and is more comfortable on clay, so it will be interesting to see the level of the 20-year-old against a tour regular here - the market makes her a 1.60 favourite.