Daria Gavrilova vs Samantha Stosur Tennis Prediction
Gavrilova has defeated Stosur in their previous two hard-court meetings (2018 Sydney and 2015 Toronto), while Stosur edged past her younger compatriot in their sole clay clash last year at Strasbourg (5-7 6-4 6-3) to lift her first title on this surface since 2015.
Samantha Stosur News
Samantha Stosur returns to Prague for the third successive year, looking to secure her season’s first clay win. Her earliest memory of Prague is the runner-up finish at the 2006 ECM Prague Open (l. Shahar Peer), a Tier IV event which later became part of ITF circuit.
The Aussie is also the runner-up of this tournament, reaching the final in 2016 by defeating Cirstea and Strycova, but ultimately losing to a fellow French Open finalist Safarova. Last year, Stosur lost to the Brazilian rising star Haddad Maia in the second round.
Stosur, who has gone 6/10 in this season, has not found her form since coming back from the three-month injury break in 2017. The former world #4 is on a four-match losing run, including last week’s loss to #210 Kerkhove at Fed Cup (worst loss since 2014).
Daria Gavrilova News
Daria Gavrilova, also the former Australian #1, shared the bench with Stosur last week at Wollongong for Fed Cup. After Stosur failed to win the second rubber, Gavrilova replaced her in the fourth and defeated #295 Quirine Lemoine 6-3 6-2 to seal the tie.
It has been an ordinary season for Gavrilova, who hasn’t won back-to-back matches in most of the tournaments (four out of six) she played this year. However, with nine wins in four months, she has won two more matches than she did in the same period of 2017.
Gavrilova, who was Strasbourg’s finalist (l. to Stosur) and Rome’s quarterfinalist last year, started the clay season (in 2018) at Charleston, losing to Camila Giorgi in the second round.
Tennis Prediction: Daria Gavrilova
Odds: 1.77
