{"id":94939,"date":"2026-01-02T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=94939"},"modified":"2026-01-02T00:35:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T05:35:32","slug":"wta-united-cup-best-bets-including-gauff-vs-sierra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/02\/wta-united-cup-best-bets-including-gauff-vs-sierra\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA United Cup Best Bets Including Coco Gauff vs Solana Sierra"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second day of the WTA United Cup features several notable players. Both Coco Gauff, Belinda Bencic, and Maya Joint will play today. There are four matches on the books for today. Here are our best bets for those matches. Please share your thoughts in the comments.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

WTA United Cup<\/b><\/h2>\n

Mertens <\/b>\u2013 <\/b>Zhu<\/b>: Time 00:30<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 3-1<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Elise Mertens will face Lin Zhu in her first match of the year. Mertens has a 3-1 lifetime record against Zhu, and all but one of their matches have been on hardcourt. The last time the two squared off was at the WTA Wimbledon Open in 2021, which Mertens won in straight sets. Mertens had a solid year in 2025, winning two titles. Zhu had an okay year, at best. She hasn’t won a title since 2023.<\/p>\n

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

The books have Mertens as the solid favorite in this match, but it’s also going to be the closest line of the day. The other matches feature\u00a0strong<\/em> favorites; the closest match is 5-1. I like Mertens winning 2:0 for 2.0 on Bet365. Only one of their prior matches went to a third set, and Mertens has improved quite a bit since those days.<\/p>\n

That being said, Mertens winning 2:0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Mertens winning 2:0<\/strong><\/span> @2.0 @Bet365<\/b><\/p>\n

Joint<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 Helgo: Time 07:30<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Maya Joint begins her year against Malene Helgo in her home country. Joint reached a career-high ranking of No. 32 in the World in the latest rankings. Helgo currently sits at No. 532. Joint put together a phenomenal year in 2025, finishing 54-28 with two tournament titles. Helgo definitely played tennis last year, and that’s about the most I can say of her.<\/p>\n

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

To say that Joint is the favorite would be an understatement. The lines for this match are all over the place. The highest odds given to Helgo are 9.0, and the lowest is 20. The average is about 12-1 in favor of Joint. If you wanna cash in on this game, you’ll need to take a risk like the under on 17.5 games for 1.95 on BetVictor.<\/p>\n

That being said, Under 17.5 games<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Under 17.5 games<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>@1.95 @BetVictor<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bencic <\/b>\u2013 <\/b>Jeanjean<\/b>: Time 03:00<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Belinda Bencic will meet Leolia Jeanjean in her first match of 2026. Bencic returns after a good year in 2025, where she was 40-18 with two titles. She played most of her matches on a hardcourt in 2025, and we’ll see if that changes this year. Jeanjean had a mixed bag of a year in 2025. Sure, she won 47 games, but she also lost 31, and she didn’t win any titles. She was able to perform solidly on a hardcourt and on clay.<\/p>\n

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

Like our other matches, this one features a strong favorite against a weak underdog. Bencic checks in as a 6-1 favorite against Jeanjean. The best way to cash in on this match is through a total games bet, but there’s nothing that truly stands out. Given the lack of history between these two, you’re left with assumptions based on the style of play and overall rankings. It’s slightly less than our minimum line, but Bencic 2:0 for 1.44 on Coral is the safest bet on the market for me.<\/p>\n

That being said, Bencic winning 2:0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Bencic winning 2:0<\/strong><\/span> @1.44 @Coral<\/b><\/p>\n

Gauff<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 Sierra: Time 11:30<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Coco Gauff will meet Solana Sierra in our featured match. Sierra toppled Jessica Bouzas Maneiro as a 3-1 underdog to make this match. Gauff had a great year last year, but she still fell one spot in the rankings because Iga Swiatek had a slightly better year. Gauff won two tournaments in 2025, including the WTA French Open. These two women have never played before.<\/p>\n

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

Gauff enters the match as a favorite, but only a 5-1 favorite. Gauff makes sense as a favorite because she’s the better player on a hardcourt, and Sierra primarily prefers to play on clay. 1xBet offers Gauff 2:0 for 1.54, and that’s my preferred wager. If you want to push things a little and bring home slightly more money, I do think you could probably grab the under on 20.5 games for 1.66 on 1xBet. I expect Gauff to win, but Sierra can probably offer a\u00a0little\u00a0<\/em>resistance.<\/p>\n

That being said, Gauff winning 2:0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Gauff winning 2:0<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>@1.54 @1xBet<\/b><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

The second day of the WTA United Cup features several notable players. Both Coco Gauff, Belinda Bencic, and Maya Joint will play today. There are four matches on the books for today. Here are our best bets for those matches. Please share your thoughts in the comments.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 WTA United Cup Mertens \u2013 Zhu: Time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":89956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[43466,43468,266,17399,2747,1412,17705,7685,18450,42392,42394,15,43467],"class_list":["post-94939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-wta","tag-2026-united-cup","tag-2026-wta-united-cup","tag-belinda-bencic","tag-best-bets","tag-coco-gauff","tag-elise-mertens","tag-leolia-jeanjean","tag-lin-zhu","tag-malene-helgo","tag-maya-joint","tag-solana-sierra","tag-wta","tag-wta-united-cup"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94939","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=94939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94941,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94939\/revisions\/94941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}