Wimbledon 2022: Bianca Andreescu vs Emina Bektas preview, head-to-head, prediction, odds and pick

Match Details

Fixture: Bianca Andreescu vs Emina Bektas.

Date: June 28, 2022.

Tournament: Wimbledon 2022.

Round: First round (Round of 128).

Venue: London, United Kingdom.

Category: Grand Slam.

Surface: Grass.

Prize money: £40,350,000.

Live telecast: USA - Tennis Channel & ESPN | Canada - TSN | UK - BBC & Eurosport | India - Star Sports.

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Bianca Andreescu vs Emina Bektas preview

Former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu will kickstart her 2022 Wimbledon campaign against American qualifier Emina Bektas on Tuesday.

Andreescu has made a commendable comeback to the sport this year after her six-month layoff to address her mental health struggles. In her third tournament of the season, she made the quarterfinals in Rome before bowing out to World No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

The 22-year-old has taken things up by a notch once the tour moved to grass. After a heartbreaking loss to 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Pliskova in the Round of 16 in Berlin, Andreescu put together a brilliant run at Bad Homburg.

She accounted for French Open semifinalists Daria Kasatkina and Martina Trevisan en route to a final showdown with Caroline Garcia.

The Canadian led 7-6 (5), 4-2 in the summit clash but failed to close it out against the experienced Frenchwoman, going down 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4 in the end. Although the final result didn't go her way, Andreescu will feel pretty upbeat heading into Wimbledon after her best-ever performance on grass.

Emina Bektas in action at the 2022 Australian Open

With a career-high ranking of 188, American Emina Bektas is mostly seen in the qualifying rounds of tour-level events and the ITF circuit. The 29-year-old has had a poor season so far this year as evident from her 12-12 win-loss record prior to Wimbledon.

Eight of those wins came in January at an ITF 60,000 event and the Australian Open's qualifying rounds. Bektas failed to win consecutive matches at any tournament after that until the qualifying stages of Wimbledon, where she won thrice to secure a main-draw berth.

Her upset wins over 16th seed Fiona Ferro and 29th seed Arianne Hartono will help her gain confidence ahead of her first-round showdown with Andreescu.

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Bianca Andreescu vs Emina Bektas head-to-head

Andreescu and Bektas have never squared off on the tour before, so their head-to-head is currently tied at 0-0.

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Bianca Andreescu vs Emina Bektas odds

Player	Moneyline	Handicap bets	Total Games (Over & Under)
Bianca Andreescu	-2000	-6.5 (-135)	Over 17.5 (-120)
Emina Bektas	+1000	+6.5 (+105)	Under 17.5 (-105)

(All odds sourced from Oddschecker)

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Bianca Andreescu vs Emina Bektas prediction

Bianca Andreescu strikes the ball at the 2022 French Open

Despite narrowly losing the Bad Homburg final, Andreescu continues to be a work in progress and will be keen to rectify her mistakes. She had her chances to close out the win, but ultimately Garcia played a cleaner match, especially in crunch moments, which gifted her the comeback win.

While Garcia produced 53 winners to 36 unforced errors, Andreescu leaked 45 unforced errors to 52 winners. That is one aspect of her game the Canadian needs to work on if she wants to make a deep run at a Slam where she has never won a main-draw match before.

That said, Andreescu's wins over Kasatkina and Trevisan will give her plenty of confidence heading into the grasscourt Major. Her aggressive shotmaking off both wings, along with her slices, will be highly effective if she can cut down on her unforced errors.

The World No. 64 will hope that all parts of her game come together and let her have a short workout against Bektas. The latter doesn't have much experience playing at the highest level of the sport and this could be too big a challenge for her.

Pick: Bianca Andreescu to win in straight sets.