{"id":103248,"date":"2026-04-21T23:34:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=103248"},"modified":"2026-04-21T23:34:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:34:02","slug":"wta-madrid-best-bets-putintseva-vs-valentova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/04\/21\/wta-madrid-best-bets-putintseva-vs-valentova\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Madrid Best Bets Including Yulia Putintseva vs Tereza Valentova"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WTA Madrid first round continues on Wednesday. The opening round began on Tuesday with former Major champion Venus Williams losing. Many of the matches on the order of play were straight-set wipeouts. Some players looked fully prepared for this tournament, while others were rusty or simply caught off guard. Let\u2019s see if there are more three-set matches and more overall competitive balance as the tournament continues in Spain. We will look at three matches on the Wednesday card.<\/span><\/p>\n

WTA Madrid<\/b><\/h2>\n

Putintseva \u2013 Valentova: Time 8:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 0-0<\/b><\/p>\n

Yulia Putintseva is one of the most intense competitors on the WTA Tour. Few players are more emotional on the court. Putintseva always plays with passion, but it has been a challenge to play with consistent quality. Putintseva is ranked No. 80 in the world, a fall from No. 20 in 2025. Her career is going in the wrong direction, and she needs to find a way to turn things around. Tereza Valentova is ranked No. 51 in the world, but Valentova has taken it easy since Miami in late March. This will be her first match since then, making this match harder to handicap.<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

Valentova taking three weeks off between Miami and this match makes it harder to trust Valentova in this match. She might be the better and higher-ranked player, but she could easily be rusty in this match. Putintseva +2.5 sets, therefore, makes a lot of sense, but the betting markets aren\u2019t really offering an attractive price for that outcome. Therefore, you have to go to the game spread.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>Putintseva +2.5 games is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: Putintseva +2.5 games @1.83 @bet365<\/b><\/p>\n

Gibson \u2013 Arango: Time 8:30 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 0-0<\/b><\/p>\n

Talia Gibson is ranked No. 58 in the world. Emiliana Arango is ranked No. 86. Gibson made a strong run to the WTA Miami Round of 16. She has won a lot of hardcourt matches in 2026, piling up 22 wins on the surface. Madrid is a clay event, so Gibson has to be able to make adjustments here. Arango has not had much success this season, but she is 3-1 on clay courts so far in 2026. It\u2019s a matchup between an in-form player going to her less comfortable surface against a not-in-form player on a more comfortable surface. You just have to weigh which factors matter more to you<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

Do you go with the in-form player on her weaker surface or the less established player on her preferred surface? That is the question here. Gibson was able to beat Naomi Osaka on hardcourt in Miami, but she hasn\u2019t played on clay yet this year. This will be her 2026 debut on the surface. Arango, on the other hand, has won a few clay matches and is really looking forward to this opportunity. The books see this match as being close to a toss-up, so you\u2019ll get good value either way on the moneyline. My bet is on the clay-court player, Arango.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>Arango winning is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: Arango winning @1.95 @Pinnacle<\/b><\/p>\n

Udvardy \u2013 Birrell: Time 5:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 0-0<\/b><\/p>\n

Panna Udvardy is in the Madrid main draw as a lucky loser. She lost her recent qualifying match to Tyra Caterina Grant. She won the first set 6-0 and then got blown away in the final two sets. It was a bizarre match, but now Udvardy gets a second chance due to the many other player withdrawals in Madrid. A spot opened up, and now Udvardy can try to wipe away the memory of her loss to Grant. Kimberly Birrell is 3-3 in her last six matches. Each of her last three matches went three sets. Birrell is inconsistent, and you do have to account for that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

The books see this as a true toss-up in multiple markets. It\u2019s all about picking the winner and nothing else. Udvardy winning a set 6-0 against Grant, an 18-year-old with relatively little experience, and then collapsing in the final two sets does not inspire confidence. Udvardy is 27 years old. She has been playing tennis for some time. Handling a match that poorly against a teenager is hard to ignore. Go with Birrell, purely on the belief that Udvardy is fading.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>Birrell winning is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: Birrell winning @1.90 @bet-at-home<\/b><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The WTA Madrid first round continues on Wednesday. The opening round began on Tuesday with former Major champion Venus Williams losing. Many of the matches on the order of play were straight-set wipeouts. Some players looked fully prepared for this tournament, while others were rusty or simply caught off guard. Let\u2019s see if there are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":58073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17400,4],"tags":[43720,17399,15201,4109,16293,18486,43011,15,15637,462],"class_list":["post-103248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-wta","tag-2026-wta-madrid","tag-best-bets","tag-emiliana-arango","tag-kimberly-birrell","tag-panna-udvardy","tag-talia-gibson","tag-tereza-valentova","tag-wta","tag-wta-madrid","tag-yulia-putintseva"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103255,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103248\/revisions\/103255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}