World number 24 Donna Vekic faces the 44th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round of the 2023 WTA Rome Open on Thursday, May 11. Get the predictions and odds of this Donna Vekic v Aliaksandra Sasnovich match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Donna Vekic v Aliaksandra Sasnovich Head to Head
There have been three previous meetings between these two players including one at the ITF level and Vekic has won in straight sets every single time. They haven’t played on clay though and their last meeting came in 2019.
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Vekic Hoping to Overturn Poor Clay Form
Vekic had begun the season rather well, even going on to win the title at the Monterrey Open but her form has tapered off in more recent times. And that would be a worry for the Croat coming into this second round match at the Italian Open as she looks for some practice before the season’s second Grand Slam.
Since that title victory, Vekic has won just two of the six matches she’s played and on clay she is 1-2.
To be fair to Vekic, she has had two difficult opponents in Stuttgart – scraping past Ekaterina Alexandrova in the first round there before going down to Karolina Pliskova. More recently, however, Vekic should done better than to lose in straight sets to Rebeka Masarova in her opener at Madrid.
The trouble for Vekic is clay isn’t quite her cup of tea as her overall record of 53-49 (over all levels of tournaments) shows. The good news for her is she will be up against someone who has herself not done too well on this surface this season.
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Sasnovich Shocks Fernandez
Leylah Fernandez was once aiming to join the likes of Maria Sakkari and Ons Jabeur to challenge the top five ranking but she has fallen off the charts rather dramatically. Her first round loss in this tournament to Sasnovich is another example of that.
Sasnovich, ranked 44th in the world but with no form on clay under her belt, was coming into the encounter at 8/5 odds to pull off a win over Fernandez.
And two hours and 38 minutes later she had managed to do just that.
In an encounter that saw both players drop their serves five times apiece, Sasnovich found a way to win the opening tie-breaker and that proved to be the difference between the two players. She had earlier missed a set-point off her own serve at 5-4 and another one in the tie-breaker but that didn’t cost her too much.
With Vekic struggling the way she has recently along with her issues on clay, this could turn out to be a good chance for Sasnovich to win two in a row for the first time this season.
Vekic v Sasnovich Prediction and Tip
It’s a match that neither player really comes into in any sort of form. Vekic is a favourite on account of her higher rank, sure, but we think this is a very evenly-matched encounter and the way to play this could be to go with Sasnovich and wait for her to take some sort of a lead – with a break or two – and then punt on the other side too.
Tips:
- Low Risk Tip: Over 8.5 games in the first set: 4/9
- Moderate Risk Tip: Sasnovich to win: 13/10
The 2023 WTA Rome Open will be played from May 9 to 21. You can get all the tennis betting news with our tennis betting blog here. Also get rest of the tennis match previews here.
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