Thailand Open Predictions: My Top 3 Bets from WTA Hua Hin

The Australian Open might be over, but the season of tennis odds is just getting started.

While the men’s tour is off this week, smaller WTA tournaments are drawing the attention of the tennis betting community. 

One of those events is WTA Hua Hin, better known as the Thailand Open. 

Main Draw starts Monday 30 Jan at 2pm local time at True Arena Hua Hun Sports Club #thailandopen #huahin #thailand #tennis #wta pic.twitter.com/SAyGQKMwZM

— WTA Thailand Open (@ThailandOpenHH) January 28, 2023

Thailand Open Predictions: My Top 3 Bets from WTA Hua Hin

With the WTA Hua Hin draw set to begin on Monday, here are three of the bets that I like for the first round.

Thailand Open 2023: Lin Zhu vs. Xiyu Wang

This one immediately jumped out at me. Wang is the No. 3 seed in this tournament with a WTA ranking of 53, yet she’s +120 in this match against the lower-ranked Lin Zhu.

Wang is trying to end a four-match losing streak and hasn’t won anything since mid-October at the Transylvania Open.

Zhu has the superior form, advancing to the fourth round of the Australian Open after wins over Maria Sakkari, Jil Teichmann and Rebecca Marino. 

I love finding spots where the market prefers lower-ranked players, and this is a textbook example. 

Play: Lin Zhu -155

Thailand Open 2023: Lanlana Tararudee vs. Mirjam Bjorklund

Tararudee is a local 18-year-old Thai player who mostly plays the lower-level ITF circuit. She ranks outside the top 400 players in the WTA.

That’s a tough upset profile against an established player like Mirjam Bjorklund, who is a regular in tour qualifying brackets. Most recently, she picked up a win in Melbourne earlier this month during the Australian Open qualifying period.

The upside with Tararudee is that she’s 8-1 this month, and she’ll absolutely have the crowd behind her.

Still, it’s hard to forecast success in such a big step up in competition. None of Taraudee’s January wins are against any player ranked in the WTA top 200. 

Bjorklund is -190 in this spot, but if you don’t want to pay such a steep cost, you can knock that cost down by laying 2.5 games for -140. A straight-set win is available for +120, but I’m not quite sure I want to get that aggressive.

Play: Bjorklund -2.5 (-140)

Thailand Open 2023: Valeria Savinykh vs. Nao Hibino

Like Bjorklund, Nao Hibino is in that pool of regular qualifier contenders that bounces around the bottom edges of the WTA tour. She’s not a major contender, but she’s a proven, quality professional player.

Curiously, Hibino was actually the player who knocked Bjorklund out of the Australian Open qualifying draw, winning a tight match, 6-1, 4-7, 7-6.

I like Hibino to handle business in this first-round match against a qualifying opponent, Valeria Savinykh, an older player that’s past her prime and mainly plays smaller hardcourt tournaments at this point in her career.

Again, this is a spot where the straight moneyline (Hibino -210) might be a bit too rich for your taste. If so, there are a couple of options.

One might be to bet on a three-set win for Hibino, who appears to have a tendency to play longer matches. Four straight wins have gone the distance. The 2-1 win is available for +300 right now.

The games total over is also available at 21.5 (+100).

Finally, you could put Bjorklund and Hibino together as a two-way moneyline parlay for +125.

Play: Hibino Wins 2-1 (+300); Hibino/Bjorklund Moneyline Parlay +125.

WTA Schedule 2023

I’m choosing to go after these matches from the WTA Hua Hin draw on Monday, but there are other women’s tour events happening this week, too. Those tournaments have women’s tennis odds available at the BetMGM online sportsbook as well.

Most notably, there’s the Lyons Open (WTA Lyons), which carries the same WTA 250 designation as Hua Hin.

A smaller WTA 125 tournament is also being played on clay in Cali, Colombia, which is part of the growing crop of South American tournaments played in the weeks following the Australian Open.