Swiss No. 1 Belinda Bencic will go head to head with the Russian ace Veronika Kudermetova in the second round of the 2021 WTA Dubai Tennis Championships. The match will be played on Tuesday, March 9, and the timings will be announced soon. Get Belinda Bencic vs Veronika Kudermetova live streaming options with the latest odds, head to head stats, and predictions.
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Belinda Bencic vs Veronika Kudermetova Head to Head
Kudermetova holds a 3-2 lead over Bencic, with their last meeting taking place in the 2020 Doha Open. The Swiss won that game in three sets.
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Bencic, enjoying a bye into the second round
Seeded sixth for the tournament, Belinda Bencic will start her run in the second round after getting a bye. She will be hoping to avoid the last week’s fiasco in the Qatar Open, where she fell to Madison Keys (who played in her first WTA game in almost six months) in the first round by 4-6, 1-6.
Around the same time last year, the Swiss was in the top 5 and she peaked at #4 ranking in the world. However, owing to the pandemic-stricken season and a general drop in form, she fell out of the top 10.
Currently ranked World No. 12, Bencic has had a pretty average run so far this season. However, she did have a brilliant time in the Adelaide International where she reached the final – her first such appearance since the 2019 Kremlin Cup.
However, she fell to the French Open defending champion Iga Swiatek in straight sets. The week after, she had that first-round loss in Doha. It was a similar story in the Australian Open too, where she was beaten by Elise Mertens in the third round.
All things considered, Bencic is a terrific player with a lot of potential. She won the Dubai Championships back in 2019 after beating Petra Kvitova in the final, in addition to winning the Canadian Open a few years back.
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Kudermetova, a force to be reckoned with
The 23-year-old Russian started her season in the WTA Abu Dhabi, where she reached the final and settled for the runners-up trophy after losing to Aryna Sabalenka.
Nonetheless, that performance propelled her to her current, career-best singles ranking as World No. 34. What is quite impressive is the consistency with which she is playing on the doubles circuit too, where she is ranked #24.
Her Australian Open Series in the singles disciple was quite uneventful. Barring a third-round defeat to Simona Halep in the Melbourne Slam, Kudermetova lost in the early rounds in the Adelaide International and Grampians Trophy.
The Russian had a similar run in the Qatar Open last week where she lost to Garbine Muguruza in the opener. In Dubai, she started off with a straight-set win over her compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6(3), 6-2.
In terms of wins and trophies, Bencic is light years ahead but Kudermetova is a hard-working player with the potential to deliver upsets. She has beaten a few top 10 players already, including Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova.
Bencic vs Kudermetova Prediction and Tip
This is an evenly matched tie that can very well go either way. Both of them have had some positives to the season and are coming off highly similar results. Expect three sets/numerous games in the match.
Tip: Over 19.5 games in the match: 5/6 (bet365)
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The 2021 WTA Dubai Open will be played from March 8 to 14. You can watch & bet on these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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