26th Jun 2013 | Tennis
Halep v Na Tip
China's great hope keeps losing to lower ranked players recently and she faces a Romanian on a long winning streak.
Upsets have not exactly been thin on the ground at SW19 so far this week and there could be another one on Thursday courtesy of the in-form Simona Halep at best odds of 9/5 with Sportingbet.
The 21-year old may not be too well known in the UK but she arrives off the back of two consecutive WTA tournaments victories in the past fortnight. The Romanian proved she is at home on grass by winning the Topshelf Open in the Netherlands as recently as Saturday.
That saw Halep rise to a personal best position of number 32 in the world rankings and she will fancy her chances against number six seed Li Na in round two at Wimbledon.
The 2011 French Open champion looked poor on clay this season and crashed out at Roland Garros in round two. Things didn’t improve for the Chinese when attention turned to grass at Eastbourne either; Na was beaten by Elena Vesnina as she again failed to live up to her high seeding.
The 31-year-old can’t justify her short odds (8/15 BetVictor) on current form and should be opposed.
Odds correct at time of publishing: 23:30 26th Jun, 2013 but subject to change