Tennis Prediction
Our tennis prediction for today is 70% sure!
This will be the pair’s first meeting on tour. They met at ITF Ankara (hard) in 2016, when the #136 Belarusian edged past the #671 Romanian in close sets (7-6 6-4).
Mihaela Buzarnescu News
Mihaela Buzarnescu got her first win since February after Lapko retired in Charleston first round due to a knee injury. This was followed by a loss to Sara Errani in the second round, which lasted nearly two and a half hour.
Buzarnescu’s journey from the 540th position at the start of 2017 to debuting in the top 100 was paved by seven ITF titles, of which four were on clay (including an $80,000 at Biarritz, def. Schnyder).
The 29-year-old Romanian won her first WTA match last year in October, defeating #35 Kontaveit at Linz. Three months later, she reached her first tour-level final at Hobart (l. to Mertens) and, in February, scored her first top 10 win (def. #6 Ostapenko).
Aryna Sabalenka News
Aryna Sabalenka has posted decent results so far in the season, as she has won at least one match in every WTA tournament in 2018. This includes a couple of quarterfinals at Shenzhen and Hobart, and the third round at Indian Wells (def. Kuznetsova).
The win over #18 Kuznetsova was her best win-by-ranking on tour, although she has beaten #13 Sloane Stephens at the Fed Cup final last November.
This will be the teenager’s first WTA main draw match on clay. Overall (in all levels), Sabalenka has a record of 12-16 on clay and has not met a higher-ranked player than Buzarnescu on this surface.
Tennis Prediction : Mihaela Buzarnescu
Odds: 1.77
