{"id":107586,"date":"2026-06-28T17:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T21:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=107586"},"modified":"2026-06-28T17:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T21:39:13","slug":"wta-wimbledon-muchova-zakharova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/06\/28\/wta-wimbledon-muchova-zakharova\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Wimbledon First Round Best Bets Including Karolina Muchova vs Anastasia Zakharova"},"content":{"rendered":"

WTA Wimbledon first-round play begins. For many, this is the crown jewel of all tennis tournaments, known locally as The Championships. The women\u2019s tournament begins with Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina as the top two seeds. Still, they are not playing well and are not entering the All-England Club with much of any confidence. Iga Swiatek is the defending champion but is not playing well, either. There are a lot of questions in the women\u2019s tournament, and there is a real chance the tournament will be as unpredictable as the French Open was a few weeks ago, with Mirra Andreeva playing Maja Chwalinska in a very unexpected final. What will happen at Wimbledon? There\u2019s a lot of uncertainty, which should create a very exciting tournament. LWOS has our best bet for three matches. Post your best bets and thoughts in the comments. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

Muchova \u2013 Zakharova: 9:30 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 1-0<\/b><\/p>\n

Karolina Muchova is one of the most talented players in women\u2019s tennis. The problem with her has not been the quality of how she plays, but her health. She has been a very injury-prone player who, as a result of injuries, can\u2019t seem to maintain momentum through a whole year. When she is able to remain healthy, she can do really well, as she just showed in Bad Homburg, where she won the title. She easily won the first set against Naomi Osaka in the final before Osaka retired very early in the second set. It\u2019s another trophy for Muchova and another sign of what she can do. Her opponent in the first round of the <\/span>WTA<\/span> Wimbledon tournament<\/span><\/a> is Anastasia Zakharova, who has won three grass matches this season and reached the Eastbourne Round of 16. Zakharova shows an ability to play on grass, but facing Muchova will be a tall task.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The<\/span> WTA Wimbledon betting choice<\/span><\/a> you have to make is not a moneyline choice, since Muchova is a massive favorite. Muchova winning in straight sets doesn\u2019t even offer much of a price. You could fold that into a parlay, but it\u2019s not our recommended standalone wager. You will need to go to the game spread, where 5.5 games is priced almost the same on both sides. It\u2019s 1.95 minus 5.5 games and 1.96 plus 5.5 games. Muchova is playing well enough to be able to cover a minus-5.5 spread. Also, the fact that she didn\u2019t have to play long in the Bad Homburg final (just one set instead of two or three) could be really valuable for her in terms of being reasonably fresh for this match here. We are going with Muchova.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>betting on Muchova -5.5 games is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: Muchova -5.5 games @1.95 @1xbet<\/b><\/p>\n

Liu \u2013 Vandewinkel: Time 10:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Claire Liu faced a lot of pressure going into WTA Wimbledon qualifying this past week at Roehampton. She had played just one grass match the previous two weeks after the French Open, and she lost it. She didn\u2019t have much match play. She didn\u2019t have ample reason to be confident. She needed to come to Roehampton, find a way to win her first-round qualifying match, and then get on a roll. She was able to do that. She won three qualifying matches and lost only one set out of the seven she played. Now she comes to the All-England Club feeling good about her game. Hanne Vandewinkel has, like Liu, won three grass matches this season. She went 3-3 in six grass matches. Two of her three losses were to very good grass players: Barbora Krejcikova and Zeynep Sonmez. Both players have shown they know how to win on grass.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The over 2.5 set bet is tempting here, but we think that Liu, having won three matches in a row to get to the WTA Wimbledon main draw, will be the more confident and in-form player. You could put Vandewinkel plus 1.5 sets into a parlay if you want. That wouldn\u2019t be a terrible bet to make. However, our recommended standalone wager is Liu moneyline, which is reasonably priced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Value bet\/ the best odds: Liu winning @1.72 @1xbet<\/b><\/p>\n

Tararudee \u2013 Tagger: Time 10:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 1-0<\/b><\/p>\n

This WTA Wimbledon match has a fascinating backdrop. Lanlana Tararudee crushed Lilli Tagger 6-3, 6-0 at the Australian Open earlier this year. It\u2019s the first and only time they have met. Sometimes, a result like that will give the winning player total confidence for future matchups. On other occasions, however, a blowout like that gives the losing player motivation and a better understanding of how to play the next time the two athletes meet on court. Will Tararudee maintain the upper hand, or will Tagger bounce back? Now you have to also consider that neither player has done much of anything on grass. Tararudee likes playing on hardcourts, Tagger on clay. Tararudee has won one grass match in 2026, Tagger none. Tagger is the clear betting favorite according to the markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The fact that Tagger is a teenager means she is too young to be disappointed by one loss to Tararudee earlier this year. She should play with more confidence and have a better plan. However, Tagger hasn\u2019t won a match on grass this year. It\u2019s really hard to trust her to win this match. You could put Tagger moneyline, reasonably priced, into a parlay, but we wouldn\u2019t recommend that as our standalone bet. This is an over 2.5 set bet because neither player has proven herself on grass this year. If it\u2019s hard to trust Tagger here, it\u2019s not easier to trust Tararudee, who is 1-3 in four grass matches in 2026. When it\u2019s hard to choose between two players who are not in form, over 2.5 sets is the regular bet to make.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>betting on over 2.5 sets is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: over 2.5 sets @2.43 @betsson<\/b><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WTA Wimbledon first-round play begins. For many, this is the crown jewel of all tennis tournaments, known locally as The Championships. The women\u2019s tournament begins with Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina as the top two seeds. Still, they are not playing well and are not entering the All-England Club with much of any confidence. Iga […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":57259,"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":[17400,6,4],"tags":[43866,16396,17399,1655,43675,3716,18559,43404,43084],"class_list":["post-107586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-wimbledon","category-wta","tag-2026-wta-wimbledon","tag-anastasia-zakharova","tag-best-bets","tag-claire-liu","tag-hanne-vandewinkel","tag-karolina-muchova","tag-lanlana-tararudee","tag-lilli-tagger","tag-wta-wimbledon"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107586","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=107586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107587,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107586\/revisions\/107587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}