Carla is the favourite for this mach, she easily got passed Jelena Jankovic in the second round and only lost a few games. However, it must be said that the Serb is nowhere near her peak right now and she will need to produce more to go far in this tournment.
Vesnina has been hitting some really powerful shots recently and her first serve is looking very effective. These girls have already played each other once this year, in Doha, where the Spaniard won 6:3 7:6, but I think Vesnina has added a lot to her game since then. She reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and won gold in the Olympic doubles. On top of this, she’s already claimed two good victories here at the US Open and is likely to be high on confidence right now. I really liked the way she beat Annika Beck and, in giving away just three games, she proved that she’s a tough opponent for any player.
Now, in my opinion, Vesnina will certainly cause problems for Suárez Navarro and get her on the back foot. Having said this, the Spaniard is a very tenacious player who rarely makes mistakes. An interesting match-up lies ahead.
This match looks as though it could be a bit of a struggle for both players and, whilst I am not sure it will go to three sets, I can definitely see the first two sets going close to the wire. With this in mind I would go with ‘Over 21.5 games’.
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