There is a great history when it comes to personal meetings between these two girls with the score nicely poised at 5:5. Last time the pair met resulted in a win for Suárez Navarro. However, that match was played on clay whereas, on the hard courts, Halep has the advantage. Although most of the matches were difficult for the Romanian, winning only one match in two sets, Halep has a 4:1 advantage on the hard courts. On top of this, Halep has beaten Suárez Navarro at the US Open before – a match that went to three sets.
To be honest, though, I am not too sure why Halep is the clear favourite here, yes she had good results recently but her last match against Babos was a tough battle and she was 3:1 down in the final set at one point, whereas Spaniard Suárez Navarro beat Vesnina with great confidence in her last match.
The girls play at approximately the same speed and it will be interesting to see how Halep will cope with the revolutions of the Spaniard. In my opinion Vesnina hits the ball harder than Halep. Suárez Navarro was unable to get to her best level during that match against Vesnina due to injury before coming through in the end. However, she has now recovered and should be able to cope until the end of the season.
There are reasons to like both players here and i think we could see a tight match. Fans should witness plenty of tennis played in this one and therefore I would back Suárez Navarro and Halep to play more than 20.5 games.
See all of today’s tips here.