Football 
Tennis 
Horse Racing Thursday's Tennis Best Bet: March 17th
WTA Indian Wells: Sakkari vs Rybakina Best Bet
Thursday, 17th March, 18:00 (UK Time)
It’s quarter-finals day at the Indian Wells Masters, and my attention has again been drawn to the Women’s side of the draw, where sixth seed Maria Sakkari faces the talented Elena Rybakina.
Rybakina approached Indian Wells on the back of a limp first-round defeat to Jacqueline Cristian (ranked 65th in the world) in Doha, emphasising her indifferent start to the year. 2022 began very promisingly after the young Kazakh reached the final of Adelaide, but she was then forced to retire or withdraw from the next three tournaments due to a combination of injury and Covid-19.
However, Rybakina appears to be back to her best in California, where she is yet to drop a set. Her serving, in particular, has been very impressive and she has only been broken once during her three matches thus far. The 22-year old displayed her best performance in that department against Azarenka (Round 3), winning 87% of points behind her first serve and allowing her experienced Belarusian opponent just one break point opportunity.
Like Rybakina, Sakkari is yet to drop a set at this year’s Indian Wells. The Greek number 1 has also served exceptionally well, highlighted by the fact she won a massive 96% of points behind her first serve against Petra Kvitova (R3).
It is worth mentioning that Sakkari has the luxury of spending the least amount of minutes on court after her fourth-round opponent, Daria Saville, retired after just five games. Rybakina, on the other hand, has mentioned she didn’t have the best physical preparation heading into the tournament, and should therefore be more reliant on her serve to keep the points shorter in length.
With both players serving at an excellent level so far this tournament, I don’t envisage there being too many breaks of serve. As a result, I will be looking to back the overs in the total games market.
- Selection: Over 22.5 games
- Best Odds: 2.17 (Unibet)
- Stakes: 6/10
Odds as at 2am March 17th 2022. Odds may now differ
