Can Canada's Bianca Andreescu Make Deep Tournament Run at Wimbledon?
Last year it was Leylah Fernandez who made headlines for Canadian tennis at a major championship.
Fernandez went on a Cinderella run to the finals of the U.S. Open before falling to another unlikely finalist, Emma Raducanu.
But Fernandez won’t be making any type of headlines in the coming days at Wimbledon. She was not on the entry list for the tournament after suffering a foot injury during her quarterfinals defeat to Martina Trevisan at the French Open.
Still, there’s a Canadian woman worth backing at this year’s Wimbledon.
Best Bet
Bianca Andreescu to win +3000 FanDuel
At the end of 2021, it was anyone’s guess what kind of form Bianca Andreescu would be in at this point. She decided to sit out the start of the 2022 season, citing the need to recover mentally and physically from a “challenging” two years.
Well, the break seems to have paid off for the former No. 4-ranked player.
Andreescu is 4-1 on grass in the lead-up to Wimbledon and has dropped just two sets in the five matches. Really, she should be 5-0. Andreescu was serving for the match up 5-4, but double faults and a sloppy service game allowed Karolina Pliskova to even the match and eventually win a third-set tiebreak.
In just the small sample size Andreescu has impressed. She defeated No. 27 Martina Trevisan (6-3, 6-1) and then later beat top-seeded and No. 13-ranked player Dayna Kasatkina (6-4, 6-1) to reach the semifinals in Homburg.
Andreescu had the chance to earn another signature win over No. 19 Simona Halep in the semifinals, but Halep withdrew because of a neck injury.
Andreescu has never made it past the first round of Wimbledon, so it might seem like a bit of a stretch to back her to win the tournament. But she has experience in winning a major. She captured the 2019 U.S. Open and is exhibiting exceptional form on grass this year, earning multiple impressive wins that provide value on her at +3000.
Canada Men’s Favourites
On the men’s side, Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime is one of the favourites behind Novak Djokovic (-135) to capture the Wimbledon title. Auger-Aliassime is +1800 at both DraftKings and FanDuel to record his first major championship.
Up to this point, Auger-Aliassime has had a decent grass season. He’s 4-2 with an understandable loss to No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz in the quarterfinals at Halle and a baffling defeat to No. 105 Tim Van Rijthoven, who went on to win the Hertogenbosch title with a victory over No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.
Auger-Aliassime was then dominated by Djokovic in an exhibition, losing (2-6, 1-6).
Denis Shapovalov is the next Canadian on the odds board at +12000. In 2021 he reached the semifinals before losing to Djokovic in straight sets. But it’s hard to find any reason to back Shapovalov right now, who is currently on a six-match losing streak.
