Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Tatjana Maria Tennis Prediction
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will play her tenth tournament of the season, having won four matches in the last nine. This includes a retirement win over world #3 Garbine Muguruza at Stuttgart and the other three wins coming in the form of tough three-setters.
In contrast, Pavlyuchenkova had won 27 matches, including two titles at Monterrey and Rabat, this time last year. The former world #13, who reached a total of four finals in 2017, finds herself outside top 100 in the WTA Race, five months into the 2018 season.
Tatjana Maria is having an even worse year than the Russian, with a W/L of 3/12. In fact, the German had to wait for the clay season to arrive before she could win a WTA match in 2018, defeating Lauren Davis at Charleston and Garcia-Perez at Bogota.
This will be Maria’s third appearance at Internationaux De Strasbourg. She debuted at the tournament eleven years ago in 2007 as a 21-year-old and lost to world #5 Marion Bartoli in the second round. In 2010, she was upset by #267 qualifier Dia Evtimova in the first round.
The pair has met twice each other in the past, with both meetings happening on hard-courts. In 2009, Maria defeated #35 Pavlyuchenkova in the qualifying round of Cincinnati, while last year, the Russian returned the favor with a 6-1 6-3 win over Maria en route to Monterrey title.
Tennis Picks: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 2-0 SET
Odds: 1.83
