Wimbledon Tip: Ladies' Singles Winner

Timing can be everything for getting the right price for your bet and now could be the moment to invest in a champion who has been rather quiet of late - Venus Williams. The five-time winner at SW19 is currently 10/1 with VictorChandler primarily because of fitness concerns. However, those odds will tumble if Venus turns out at Eastbourne, as scheduled next week, and looks anything close to her old self.

As always with the Williams sisters, the hopes of one are intrinsically linked with the well-being of the other. Unfortunately for Serena (6/1), she looks in grave danger of missing Wimbledon altogether due to a hermatoma and pulmonary embolism. The defending champion hasn’t played a single competitive match since injuring herself on broken glass last July. News on her chances of turning out in London has gone ominously quiet of late.

Of the other likely contenders, nobody looks a patch on a fully fit Venus. Maria Sharapova has somehow arrived at favouritism at a best price 9/2 with Boylesports despite failure to reach a final at the All-England club since her shock win in 2004. Kim Clijsters is 7/1 after winning the Australian Open in January, but she has never reached a final at Wimbledon in her long career. Na Li has to be regarded as a contender having just won her first Slam in Paris and at 8/1 with bet365 is worthy of consideration. But still, we are talking about a 29-year-old who has never progressed beyond the quarter-finals in south west London.

Then we look again at Venus’s record of five wins and a total of eight final appearances on Centre Court. The older Williams sister has previous for slipping under the radar to great effect in these Championships. In 2007 she was ranked 31 in the world going into the tournament after injury problems, and won. The following year she retained her title without dropping a single set; this after missing tournaments in the build-up and arriving as just seventh seed. Sound familiar? The bookies who dismiss a Williams sister at Wimbledon because of her preparations and form normally do so at their peril. Backing Venus at 10/1 looks like an irresistible value bet.