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On Wednesday, world No. 21 Jil Teichmann will face world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit in the Round of 32 at the National Bank Open in Toronto. And while Kontaveit is a -200 favorite to go through in this one, we think there’s value in backing Teichmann to ultimately push her a bit in this spot.

Earlier in the year, Kontaveit looked like a player that couldn’t be stopped. She made deep runs in nearly every tournament she played in, and captured a title in St. Petersburg. All of that came directly after a scorching hot ending to the 2021 season. We learned pretty quickly that Kontaveit is one of the best players on the planet when it comes to indoor hard courts. But the Estonian has slowed down a lot since the beginning of the season, and she’s fresh off a disappointing 6-1, 6-1 loss to world No. 48 Anastasia Potapova in Prague.

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With this being an outdoor tournament, we won’t see the dominant version of Kontaveit that we saw earlier in the year. Meanwhile, Teichmann comes into this match after having won two of her last three. One of those victories was an impressive 6-2, 6-3 win over Venus Williams, and she’ll now look to ride the momentum into this meeting with Kontaveit. The last time these two played was smack in the middle of Kontaveit’s great run, but the Swiss player still took a set off of the Estonian in St. Petersburg.

If Teichmann was able to take a set off of Kontaveit at her absolute best, it’s hard to see her not being able to keep this match competitive. With Kontaveit being a pretty big favorite in this match, we can get reasonable odds on Teichmann to simply make things difficult on her opponent here. Teichmann to win a set is going off at -160 for this match, and that’s exactly where we’re going with this one.

With Kontaveit coming off of her worst match of the season, we just think now is a good time to fade her. The fact that we can do so without even needing her to lose outright is just the cherry on top.

The Pick: Teichmann To Win A Set (-160)