Alona has taken over from Ai Sugiyama the role of 'must draw a Brit at Wimbledon'. Two years ago Mel put in a highly creditable performance before going down 6-4 in the third, while Bally reversed the final set score last year. Katie plays here for the 8th time, and if you believe in symmetry then she is due a win as she won on her fourth appearance following 3 defeats. However it is very hard in reality to see how Katie can trouble Alona.
Katie has been given one of the two TBA slots, which potentially means playing on Centre or Court 1 for the first time if the earlier matches finish in time.
Bookies odds 1.15 - 4.14
Laura Robson WR236 v (4) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) WR4 2nd on centre
Laura has a big challenge of trying to penetrate one of the game's best defenders. Laura acquitted herself well though against Elena Dementieva in the Hopman Cup, the Russian having more of JJ's skills than anyone else I can think of who she has played. Grass is far from JJ's favourite surface, but she usually starts off well here as in other grand slams (it's 5 years since she lost in the first round of a slam) so the chances of an upset are minimal. It will be important for Laura to start well, as like against Dementieva I expect it will be increasingly difficult for her as the match goes on and JJ adjusts to the conditions and Laura's game.
Bookies odds 4.95 -1.10
Regina Kulikova (RUS) WR69 v Melanie South WR234 3rd on court 5
Mel plays at Wimbledon for the sixth consecutive time, struggling for confidence. However her performances against Parmentier and Chakvetadze during the warm-up tournaments suggested that she is capable of playing at the level of Kulikova, who retired from her one warm-up match in Birmingham. Last year she wasn't helped by being asked to play last on centre or no.1. She is on an outside show court where home support might help her to an upset, but the bookies don't fancy her chances
Bookies odds 1.26 - 3.15
Petra Martic (CRO) WR77 v Elena Baltacha WR62 1st on court 12
Martic plays her first match on grass since turning Pro (she played junior Wimbledon, but only won 4 games). Hence we have a rare situation of a British woman being a clear favourite to win a match here. Providing Bally continues the momentum generated through the grasscourt season, and doesn't return to the nervous performance which wrecked her chances when expected to beat Sabine Klaschka in 2005 then she should make the second round for the fifth time
As the first Brit to play a win would be a great boost to those playing later
Bookies odds: 2.93-1.30
-- Edited by DavidC on Sunday 20th of June 2010 11:40:37 AM
Certainly make Bally favourite and really hope she can come through because I am afraid I really don't see any of the other 3 winning a set.
I do hope though that Laura in particular has a good expoerience on Centre Court, is reasonably competitive with Jankovic and gets a few games on the board. And if she's really on her game and Jankovic a bit off it might get quite intersesting, but as I said I'd have to take Jankovic in straight.
Jankovic to beat Laura: 5-7 6-3 6-0 Mel to beat Kulikova: 6-4 7-5 Bally to beat Martic 6-4 6-2
I can't make any predictions about Katie. I only hope she can find some confidence tomorrow - taking Bondarenko to 3 sets as Bally & Mel both did could be a step on the right road....
