{"id":95178,"date":"2026-01-06T04:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=95178"},"modified":"2026-01-05T23:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:26:10","slug":"wta-brisbane-best-bets-sabalenka-vs-bucsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/06\/wta-brisbane-best-bets-sabalenka-vs-bucsa\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Brisbane Best Bets Including Aryna Sabalenka vs Cristina Bucsa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, we are covering the second round of the WTA Brisbane tournament. While the United Cup is still going on, the action in Brisbane is better than ever. Today’s matches feature some of the best players in the World. Please let us know if you disagree and specify which lines caught your attention.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Rybakina — Zhang: Time 11:00<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 2-1<\/b><\/p>\n

Elena Rybakina and Shuai Zhang kick off our best bets action. They have a small history, having played three previous games against one another. Rybakina won the first two, including a final at WTA Hobart in 2020. Zhang won their last match, which was a second-round match at the Australian Open. Zhang won the first set and then the first game of the second set before Rybakina walked over and retired.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The books have Rybakina as an 8.5-1 favorite, but the average is closer to 6.5-1 on most books. Of their three matches, only one went over 19 games. While there’s no telling how many games would have been played at the Australian Open in 2022 if Rybakina hadn’t retired, that’s not how things worked out. If you value the money more than the pick, Bet365 offers Rybakina straight up at 1.44, and that’s another solid option.<\/p>\n

That being said, Under 19 games<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Under 19 games<\/strong><\/span> @1.98 @Pinnacle<\/b><\/p>\n

Kessler <\/b>\u2013 Keys<\/b>: Time 02:00<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

This will be the first meeting between McCartney Kessler and Madison Keys. Kessler took down Emiliana Arango in the first round, dropping only four games in the entire match. 2025 was a solid year for Kessler, going 37-24 with two tournament titles. Keys had a great year in 2025, posting a 38-15 record with three titles to her name, including the Australian Open and Adelaide to start the year. Does Australia still love Keys?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

The books have Keys as the favorite, and for good reason. Aside from the aforementioned accolades, Keys also made the final here at Brisbane back in 2020. Keys is also a great hardcourt technician, with 259 career wins, including a 24-6 record on a hardcourt last year. You can grab Keys straight up for 1.68 on Pinnacle. If you believe that Kessler will win, she can be had for 2.29 on Pinnacle, as well.<\/p>\n

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

Value bet\/the best odds: Keys\u00a0winning<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>@1.68 @Pinnacle<\/b><\/p>\n

Sabalenka <\/b>\u2013 Bucsa: Time 03:30<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Aryna Sabalenka vs Cristina Bucsa is our featured match. Sabalenka won this tournament last year, and she made the final here in 2024, too. Coming off a loss at the Battle of the Sexes, Sabalenka will be looking to silence doubters who would use a meaningless exhibition as an indictment of her abilities. The World No. 1 was 66-12 last year, with four titles, including the US Open and Brisbane.\u00a0 Cristina Bucsa is looking for her first tournament victory since 2023, and was 37-32 overall last year.<\/p>\n

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

Sabalenka is a ridiculous favorite for this match. Betfair has her as a 14-1 favorite at the highest, and William Hill has Sabalenka as .6-point underdog, inexplicably. Does someone at William Hill know something we don’t? You might as well capitalize on their weird offerings. Take Sabalenka as the underdog and cash out.<\/p>\n

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

Value bet\/the best odds: Sabalenka winning <\/strong><\/span>@2.20 @WilliamHill<\/b><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey–USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

Today, we are covering the second round of the WTA Brisbane tournament. While the United Cup is still going on, the action in Brisbane is better than ever. Today’s matches feature some of the best players in the World. Please let us know if you disagree and specify which lines caught your attention.\u00a0 \u00a0 WTA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":94828,"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":[1766,17399,15195,5595,63,41787,405,15,2320],"class_list":["post-95178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-wta","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-best-bets","tag-cristina-bucsa","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-madison-keys","tag-mccartney-kessler","tag-shuai-zhang","tag-wta","tag-wta-brisbane"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95178","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=95178"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95189,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95178\/revisions\/95189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}