Bad Homburg Open 2024 Predictions: Badosa to continue her progress

The grass-court season is now in full swing and the WTA Tour remains in Germany this week for the Bad Homburg Open, now boasting increased status as a WTA 500 event for the first time.

Read on for my Bad Homburg Open 2024 predictions and all the latest betting odds.

Bad Homburg is one of the newest key stops on tour, with its inaugural edition taking place as recently as 2021, and the event's success in a relatively short time frame is measured by the increase in status this year.

Libema Open champion Liudmila Samsonova, rising teen star Mirra Andreeva and 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, as well as former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and veteran German star Angelique Kerber - the inaugural winner - are all in the field.

Bad Homburg Open 2024 Odds

Paula Badosa to win each-way @ 10/1

Former World No.2 Paula Badosa picked up a wildcard entry into the Bad Homburg Open as she continues her comeback from a stress fracture in her back sustained last summer.

The Spaniard was forced to put her racket away after Wimbledon, missing the remainder of the 2023 campaign.

She was back in action for the Australian Open in January and, while not entirely pain-free, there have been positive signs for a player that has fallen outside of the top 100 in the rankings.

After failing to win a match in Adelaide, she made the last 32 at the season-opening Grand Slam in Melbourne.

She had a mixed time of it thereafter but wasn't helped in bumping into world number two Aryna Sabalenka in Miami and again in Stuttgart, while American Danielle Collins - ranked 22nd - sent her packing at the Charleston Open.

She won three matches in Rome in May before losing in three sets to US Open champion Coco Gauff.

After three-set wins against Katie Boulter and Yulia Putintseva, the powerhouse Sabalenka again got in her way as she exited the French Open in the last-32 earlier this month, though not without a scrap, having lost the first set 7-5.

Based in New York, she cites the US Open as her favourite tournament, but her best Slam results have come elsewhere, including two runs to the fourth round at Wimbledon that highlight her grasscourt prowess.

The shoots of recovery have been evident in recent months and this powerful server is capable of climbing the rankings while she remains fit and healthy. She is a three-time singles title winner on the tour and more success surely awaits.

She opens up against the 58th-ranked Arantxa Rus and should take care of the 33-year-old before a possible test against Greek world number nine Maria Sakkari for a place in the quarter-finals.

If she can navigate those matches and take her spot in the last eight, Badosa has shown in recent months she can compete with the best and a deep run in Germany is within her grasp.

She's an outsider well worth considering.

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