WTA Madrid Tips & Analysis | Our Picks For This Week’s Tennis

The Caja Majica is the host for the Madrid Open where Iga Swiatek will look to win back-to-back titles after her triumph in Stuttgart last week. However, a high quality field has been assembled here, can anyone stop the Pole?

Swiatek withdrew from Madrid last year so it is interesting that she takes up her #1 seeding position at the top of the draw here.

The conditions here in Madrid are different to most clay court tournaments as a result of the altitude in the Spanish capital. This often means that if a player was intending to miss any tournament in the build-up to Roland-Garros then it is often this one.

Also, it means that players that may not be ‘traditional’ clay court players can have a chance at a deep run here. Petra Kvitova is a two-time champion here, Aryna Sabalenka has been a champion and Kiki Bertens’ big serve helped her to a tournament win too.

However, Simona Halep is also a multiple time champion, so that movement and quality of groundstroke is still of great importance if you want to do well at the Madrid Open.

WTA Madrid Betting Tips

Aryna Sabalenka 1pt EW @ 13/2 with Bet365

That defeat in the final of Stuttgart last week may have put some doubt in Sabalenka’s mind in terms of defeating Swiatek on this surface, but if there is anywhere that she can get the better of the Pole on the dirt then it is in Madrid.

Sabalenka was the champion in 2021 and bagelled Ashleigh Barty in that final.

Paula Badosa 0.5pt EW @ 14/1 with Bet365

I have been going on about a Badosa comeback for a while now and this could be a great chance for the Spaniard to put together a big run. She reached the semifinals as a wildcard here in 2019 and is in a mini-section where her closest seeded rival is the out-of-form Coco Gauff, although the conditions should also suit the American, I would fancy Badosa to win that match and hopefully that will her give Badosa the confidence to go deep in this tournament.

Paula Badosa to win Quarter 3 1pt @ 3/1 with Bet365

As a result of Badosa having Sabalenka in here half, I also want to put a point on Badosa winning her quarter. I really like her chances of progression this week and want to be able to bank something if she makes the semi-finals. Her price is the biggest of the favourites in the quarters and whilst there are some players in there who can put it all together and be brilliant on their day (Gauff, Ostapenko) I think that Badosa is the rightful favourite in this section.

WTA Madrid Draw

The draw in Madrid is a 96-player draw, with 32 seeds. All of the seeds have received byes into the second round.