WTA S’Hertogenbosch Tips & Preview | Our Picks For This Week’s Tennis

The Libema Open, often referred to as the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, is one of the very few 250 events that boasts a joint women’s and men’s competition.

The switch to grass from clay is always quite a jarring one. Only yesterday the tennis fans were watching long rallies and sliding around at the back of the court. For the next few weeks the rallies will be much shorter and movement forwards early in the points will be the order of the day.

The tournament lost it’s place on the calendar, due to COVID, in 2020 and 2021, but Ekaterina Alexandrova is the defending champion from 2022. Alison Riske-Amitraj is the only other former champion in the draw, though at the time of writing the American has fallen to #1 seed Veronika Kudermetova.

Like any grass court tournament it does help to have a good serve to win this tournament, Kontaveit, Krunic, and Coco Vandeweghe are recent champions where this applies. However, quality grass movement probably matters more. Riske-Amitraj was an experienced grass court player when she won in 2019, Simona Halep won here in 2013, Roberta Vinci (2011) and Justine Henin (2010) were also champions here.

These are all factors to assess when looking at who could be champion here this week.

WTA S’Hertogenbosch Betting Tips

Veronika Kudermetova 1pt @ 15/4 with Bet365

The number one seed was a semifinalist here last year and has landed a soft draw in the top half. Kudermetova has shown improvement through the 2023 season with a couple of good semifinal appearances recently.

It would be really helpful for her to get the maximum amount of grass court preparation in this week to give her options in the next couple of weeks before Wimbledon.

A deep run here protects her points from last season and guarantees her a good seeding at Wimbledon.

Ekaterina Alexandrova 1pt @ 11/2 with Bet365

The defending champion obviously enjoyed the conditions here last year and is focused on getting a good seeding for Wimbledon as well.

The bottom half draw is definitely the tougher section, but Alexandrova has a fairly easy opener to allow herself to acclimatise to the grass once more.

WTA S’Hertogenbosch Draw

The draw in Rabat is a 32-player draw, with 8 seeds. No byes are given.