This week sees the inaugural WTA San Diego 500 commence with top-level women’s tennis returning to Southern California after a long break. The region has a rich history of tennis with previous WTA champions such as Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport and Sam Stosur.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek leads a strong draw at the WTA San Diego 500 as seven of the world’s top ten women will be competing for the title. Below we take a look at bookmaker William Hill’s odds for the tournament as we analyze the draw as well as the chances of each of the top seeds.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: October 10th, 5:00 A.M. (EST)
Unsurprisingly, World No. 1 and top seed Iga Swiatek leads the betting odds at William Hill. Swiatek has run hot in 2022 as she’s raced her way to being the World No. 1 with seven singles titles this year, including two Grand Slams. The 21-year-old Pole is coming off a win at the US Open last month and recently made the final of the AGEL Open 2022 in Ostrava where she was upset by home favourite Barbora Krejcikova.
Swiatek is coming in with odds of 4.00 to win the title, half that of the next closest contender, which is Liudmilla Samsonova on 8.00. World No. 23 Samsonova is coming into the tournament as the in-form player in the WTA with the Russian winning the Toray Pan Pacific Open last week to claim her third singles title of the year.
Looking at the remaining favourites in the women’s draw, top ten players Aryna Sabalenka and Caroline Garcia are also priced at 8.00 as second equal favourites. The World No. 5 Sabalenka hasn’t played since her semi-final loss to Swiatek at the US Open and will be eager for revenge this week while Caroline Garcia, who also made the US Open semi-finals in falling to Ons Jabeur, will be chasing her fourth title of 2022.
As with much of women’s tennis this year, what really matters in this tournament is form rather than ranking. However, ranking is what determines seeding, which means some big clashes will happen prior to the final four stage of this tournament. Look for a second round clash between World No. 8 Coco Gauff and the in-form Samsonova followed by a possible third round tournament deciding match between the two favourites for the title in Swiatek and Samsonova.
Predicted results based on seeding:
Semi-finals:
Iga Swiatek vs. Jessica Pegula
Aryna Sabalenka vs. Paula Badosa
Final:
Iga Swiatek vs. Aryna Sabalenka
WTA San Diego 500 Winner:
Iga Swiatek
