Women’s tennis remains in the Middle East this week with the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2023 following on from last week’s Abu Dhabi tournament. For those who didn’t play in Abu Dhabi, this will be a chance to have a look at how some of the stars of the women’s game are shaping up after the Australian Open.
One of these will be Iga Swiatek, who had a breakout year in 2022, storming to the No. 1 spot with a 37-match winning streak. After losing earlier than expected at the Australian Open, can the Pole regain form in Doha with her first tournament win of the year? She’ll have some hot competition, particularly from the likes of Belinda Bencic and Caroline Garcia, who enter this week in excellent form.
Bookmaker William Hill has all the odds and best bets ahead of this week’s WTA 500 in Doha.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: February 12th, 11:00 P.M. (GMT)
Looking at the outright winner odds from bookmaker William Hill, World No. 1 Iga Swiatek is still the heavy favourite her despite her recent dip in form. At 3.00, she is well ahead of the next favourite, World No. 4 Jessica Pegula, who sits at 7.00. Behind these two are Caroline Garcia and Coco Gauff at 10.00 before Belinda Bencic rounds out the top five favourites at 11.00.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek is a great bet to win this tournament at her current odds. This year she’s won six and lost two, making the semifinals of the United Cup and Round of 16 of the Australian Open. While two women have already found a way to do something that only a handful were able to achieve in 2022, the reality is Swiatek is still the most consistent figure in women’s tennis right now.
Two other fantastic candidates to win the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2023 are Jessica Pegula and Belinda Bencic. Pegula is one of the women who has defeated Swiatek this year, dispatching the Pole 6-2, 6-2 in their United Cup semifinal. She also made the Australian Open quarterfinals and has a nice path to the final here in Qatar as the No. 2 seed.
Belinda Bencic, however, will have something to say about that. She is the hottest thing in women’s tennis now having claimed two WTA titles already in 2023, despite it only being six weeks into the year. In Australia, she picked up the Adelaide 2 crown then made it to the Round of 16 where she lost to the eventual champion Arnya Sabalenka at the Australian Open. Last week, she added her second trophy in winning the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open 1-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 over Liudmila Samsonova. Bencic is on track to meet Swiatek in a quarterfinal in Qatar—a rematch of their United Cup meeting in January, which Swiatek won 6-3, 7-6(3).
