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, but players get just three weeks to prepare for it, and the need to rest after the French Open usually means that top pros will be able to play just 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
Birrell – Krejcikova: Time TBA
H2H: 0-1
Kimberly Birrell faces Barbora Krejcikova at Eastbourne. Two years ago, in 2024, Barbora Krejcikova won Wimbledon. She is now preparing to get back to the All-England Club and make another run at the title. A good week in Eastbourne would improve her prospects for the year’s one major tournament held on grass. Krejcikova is technically 4-1 in her last five matches, but that “1” loss was not an actual match played. She had to withdraw from the Hertogenbosch final against Robin Montgomery because she wasn’t feeling well. So, Krejcikova didn’t lose a match in which her opponent won the final point. She lost by walkover. Birrell comes into this match 3-2 in her last five matches. All three of those wins came in qualifying rounds, two of them over the past few days in Eastbourne. Birrell is searching for a main-draw win here.
Best Bet to Make
The reality that Krejcikova is so good on grass, combined with the other reality that Birrell hasn’t won a main-draw match on grass over the past few weeks, makes this a clear-cut call. Krejcikova moneyline won’t offer much of a price, so you need to go to the game or set spread. We usually like the set spread, because whether a player wins by four games or five games can often swing a bet in one direction or another. If a player simply wins a set 7-6 or 6-4, the margin of victory doesn’t matter. Krejcikova should be able to win this match in straight sets, and the price is generous given the gap in quality and achievement between the two players.
That being said, betting on Krejcikova winning 2:0 is a value bet for sure.
Value bet/ the best odds: Krejcikova winning 2:0 @2.00 @1xBet
Sonmez – Dart: Time TBA
H2H: 0-0
Zeynep Sonmez faces Harriet Dart. Sonmez is trying to break into the WTA top 50. She very nearly did so last week, but she lost to Viktorija Golubic in Nottingham in a match she led 3-1 in the third set. She will try to get over the hump this week and take that extra step. Sonmez has won seven grass matches this month, so she is winning most of the time, but the challenge is to make a deep run and not let important matches slip away. Harriet Dart has not had Sonmez’s level of success on grass. She has won just one tour match on grass this month and is 1-3 in her last four matches. Playing in Great Britain in front of home fans, Dart will try to ride the support of the crowd and pull off the upset in Eastbourne. She is a substantial underdog here with Sonmez a 1.42 moneyline favorite and Dart moneyline being priced at 3.40.
Best Bet to Make
The gap in quality between the two players is evident, with Sonmez being roughly 100 spots higher than Dart in the rankings. Sonmez also has seven grass wins this year compared to just one for Dart. It’s really hard to make a pro-Dart bet here even though she is playing in front of a home crowd. It is always possible that Sonmez will get nervous. That does happen regularly, and it happened last week against Golubic. Sonmez got very tight in the third set and did not handle pressure very well. However, Golubic was riding a bit of form. She got all the way to the semifinals in Nottingham and is a capable grass player. Dart is not riding any form and will find it hard to win a set. Sonmez in straight sets has a great price. Go for it.
That being said, betting on Sonmez winning 2:0 is a value bet for sure.
Value bet/ the best odds: Sonmez winning 2:0 @2.00 @1xBet
Starodubtseva – Zakharova: Time TBA
H2H: 0-0
Yulia Starodubtseva faces Anastasia Zakharova. Neither of these players likes playing on grass. Starodubtseva has a 2026 match profile in which she has played substantial numbers of matches on hardcourt and clay, but she entered just one grass tournament after Roland-Garros when she could have entered two. She went 1-1 in two matches. Zakharova did at least enter two grass tournaments before Eastbourne, but in one of them, she lost to 17-year-old Hannah Klugman. She is 2-1 in three grass matches. Whereas some WTA players lean into the grass season, these players do not.
Best Bet to Make
The reality that these players don’t especially enjoy playing on grass and aren’t trying to maximize their grass season points to a complicated, difficult match which is very hard to call.. When that kind of situation exists, the best bet is over 2.5 sets. Neither player is good enough to take complete command of the match, but the gap between the players is not that extreme, so if one player loses the first set, she can very realistically come back and win the second one, thereby forcing a third set. The price cannot be beaten, as is always the case with over 2.5 sets.
That being said, betting on over 2.5 sets is a value bet for sure.
Value bet/ the best odds: over 2.5 sets @2.49 @Betsson
Main Photo Credit: Robert Prange-USA TODAY Sports
