Rio 2016 Women’s Tennis Free Betting Pick

Posted by Jordan Walterss on Monday,August 8, 2016 4:06, EDT in

Olympic Games News, Online Betting Tips, Picks and Previews

While the men’s tennis draw appears wide open at the Rio Olympics with a few big names like Roger Federer missing the event and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic losing his opening match over the weekend, on the women’s side it would be an upset if world No. 1 and American Serena Williams doesn’t win another gold medal and she’s a heavy favorite to do so on Olympic tennis odds.

Let’s Take a Look at the Rio 2016 Women’s Tennis Free Betting Pick

But Serena won’t repeat as Olympic doubles champion as her and sister Venus were upset in their first match. They had won three straight gold medals but lost in straight sets to the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova. It was the siblings’ first Olympic loss together, having won gold as a pair at the Sydney 2000 Games, Beijing 2008 Games and London 2012 Games.

By Sunday night, Team USA had competed in 12 tennis matches at the Rio Olympics — four in men’s singles, four in women’s singles, two in women’s doubles and two in men’s doubles. Of those 12 matches, the U.S. lost half. Other than Serena, the only Americans left in singles are Madison Keys on the women’s side and Steve Johnson for the men. The top two men’s singles players for the USA, John Isner and Sam Querrey, opted to the skip the Olympics to focus on the U.S. hard-court swing that culminates with the U.S. Open later this month.

In singles, Serena rolled over Daria Gavrilova of Australia, 6-4, 6-2, on Centre Court at the Olympic Tennis Centre. The heavy wind made conditions difficult and both players seemed tentative in the firstset. Serena is the defending gold medalist in Olympic singles.

She will next face Alize Cornet and is a -1500 favorite. The Frenchwoman is currently ranked at No. 49 and has one title under her belt in 2016, taking the crown in Hobart at the start of the year. She beat Canadian Eugenie Bouchard in the final. Cornet had a tough first round match with Sweden’s Johanna Larsson but she was victorious 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. Serena and Cornet have played six times. Williams won the first three and Cornet the last three. Their most recent meeting was in 2014 at the Wuhan Open. Williams was leading 6-5 in the first set but withdrew from the match due to illness.

The second-favorite to win gold is Germany’s Angelique Kerber, who is No. 2 in the world. Kerber had reached the semifinals at the Canadian Masters where she was beaten by Simona Halep in three sets. She had lost the final at Wimbledon and had to retire from the WTA Bastad in the second round. Kerber opened this event winning the last five games to battle past Colombia’s Mariana Duque-Mariño, 6-3, 7-5. On Monday Kerber will meet a player that has troubled her in the past in Canada’s Bouchard. She beat American Sloane Stephens on Saturday to claim her maiden Olympic victory. Bouchard has won the past three meetings vs. Kerber.

Agnieszka Radwanska was the highest seed to fall in the first round. The No.4 seed fell to China’s Zheng Saisai in straight sets. Seeds went 12-4 in Round 1 in Rio.