The WTA Eastbourne first-round play continues on Tuesday. Players want to win and get the prize money and ranking points being offered by every tour event. However, the week before Wimbledon puts a premium on a different goal: getting match play on grass, the least-used surface on the professional tennis tours. Wimbledon is one of the most important and anticipated tournaments in tennis every year. Still, players get just three weeks to prepare for it, and the need to rest after the French Open usually means top pros can play only two of the three weeks on grass before Wimbledon. It’s such a short span of time that players have to prepare for the All-England Club. Winning these early-round matches in Eastbourne matters a lot to the players involved. LWOS has our best bets for three matches. Post your best bets and thoughts in the comments.
WTA Eastbourne
Gibson – Keys: Time TBA
H2H: 0-0
Talia Gibson faces Madison Keys in this article’s featured match at Eastbourne. Gibson has a losing record on grass this month, with two wins and three losses. However, her two wins came in the same tournament last week in Nottingham, which enabled her to make the quarterfinals since she got direct entry into the main draw. She lost to Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinals. Madison Keys played in Berlin last week. She won two matches and then lost to Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals. The fact that both players made the quarterfinals last week means they will come into this match with equal amounts of rest. One player won’t be at an advantage or disadvantage.
Best Bet to Make
The fact that both players have equal amounts of rest makes this a reasonably neutral match in the sense that the intangibles aren’t a factor. It’s just going to be who is the better tennis player, and that is Madison Keys. One point worth keeping in mind is that Keys, playing in Berlin at the WTA 500 event while Gibson played in Nottingham at a WTA 250 tournament, is that Keys has played tougher competition than Gibson. That should certainly help Keys here, and it means that a bet should be pro-Keys in some way. We’re going to go with Keys in straight sets. It’s not an incredible price, but it’s a decent one.
That being said, betting on Keys winning 2:0 is a value bet for sure.
Value bet/ the best odds: Keys winning 2:0 @1.65 @1xBet
Dudeney – Bouzas Maneiro: Time 6:00 EST
H2H: 0-0
Alicia Dudeney faces Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. Alicia Dudeney is 1-3 in her last four matches. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro is 2-2 in her last four matches. Those facts aren’t going to give bettors too much information to go on. This might be more relevant: Dudeney is ranked outside the top 225, roughly 200 spots lower than Bouzas Maneiro on the WTA Tour. Here’s an even more interesting fact: Both players played a common opponent in their last four matches, Himeno Sakatsume, who is ranked No. 125. Dudeney lost to her while Bouzas Maneiro defeated her. Those are some data points worth thinking about, though, with both players having played four matches over the past two weeks, these are very small sample sizes.
Best Bet to Make
The fact that Bouzas Maneiro beat Sakatsume and Dudeney lost to her seems like the most important comparison and contrast between the two players. World rankings are not irrelevant, but they often matter less than the current or recent form of two players. The Sakatsume comparison shows that Bouzas Maneiro is much more able to beat a relatively average opponent than Dudeney is. That makes it easy to trust that Bouzas Maneiro will win. You won’t get a huge price on the Bouzas Maneiro moneyline, so Bouzas Maneiro in straight sets is the play to make here.
That being said, betting on Bouzas Maneiro winning 2:0 is a value bet for sure.
Value bet/ the best odds: Bouzas Maneiro winning 2:0 @2.05 @Unibet
Paolini – Maria: Time 6:00 EST
H2H: 3-2
Jasmine Paolini takes on Tatjana Maria. Paolini has had a very difficult 2026 tennis season, tumbling out of the top 10 of the WTA rankings. Paolini was excellent in 2024 and good in 2025, but 2026 has been a different story. Paolini hasn’t been supremely healthy, but she also hasn’t been in good form when she has played. She has not played any grass tennis so far this season. This will be her first grass match of 2026. Tatjana Maria has played nine grass matches this season, winning six of them. She is very comfortable on grass and will try to build even more momentum going into Wimbledon. A victory over Paolini would give her a lot of confidence when she arrives at the All-England Club in several days.
Best Bet to Make
The betting markets have this match at Eastbourne rated as a virtual toss-up, with the moneyline prices for both players being almost identical. This is a pick-your-winner type of match … but if you don’t know which player to pick, you can always go with over 2.5 sets. We are going to pick a side, however. Because Paolini has played zero grass matches this season, whereas Maria is very much at home on grass and knows how to play on the surface, we are going with the Maria moneyline. Though Paolini is a former Wimbledon finalist, her recent form has been terrible, and she is probably going to be somewhat rusty for this match. Take Maria.
That being said, betting on Maria winning is a value bet for sure.
Value bet/ the best odds: Maria winning @1.97 @Betfair
Main Photo Credit: Cara Owsley-USA TODAY Sports
