World number five Elina Svitolina will face up to the challenge of Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova in the third round of the 2020 French Open on Friday, October 2. This will begin at around 12.00 pm local time (11.00 am BST or 6 am Eastern Time). Get the live streaming options of this Elina Svitolina v Ekaterina Alexandrova match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Elina Svitolina v Ekaterina Alexandrova Head to Head
There have been no previous meetings between Svitolina and Alexandrova.
Also Read:
Svitolina Survives Zarazua Bagel
A Strasbourg Open winner in the week leading up to the French Open, Svitolina had begun her campaign at this competition with a confident with over Varvara Gracheva in the first round.
A testing but straight-set win in that opener set Svitolina up for what looked like an easy second round fixture against Renata Zarazua, a 178th-ranked qualifier who had earlier spoken about living a dream by making it to the main draw.
Looked easy enough when Svitolina grabbed the first set 6-3, breaking her opponent twice to first take a 4-0 lead and then while losing a break herself, completing a straightforward win in that opening set. So far, so good, according to the script and a place in the third round looked almost set.
Except it wasn’t.
On the one hand Zarazua took the confidence from the late break of the Svitolina serve to the third set while on the other, the Ukrainian herself begun to make a few more unforced errors of her own. The result was a stunning second set in which Zarazua lost just three points on her own serve and broke her distinguished opponent thrice.
A bagel would have pushed any other player back and dented their confidence but Svitolina has seen a lot worse and she recovered remarkably to complete a 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 win and cement her place in the third round for the third successive season of the French Open. Can she go one better though this time?
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Resurgent Alexandrova Aiming for Best-Ever Showing
Russia’s Alexandrova had earlier this season made it to her first ever WTA title, following on from finishing a runnerup in 2018 – both of the tournaments coming on hard court surfaces. And that had also how Alexandrova’s career had gone through the lower circuit, with four of her seven titles coming on hard courts and one on carpet.
On clay, Alexandrova can hold her own, as can be seen from some of her lower circuit performances – she has a couple of titles at the ITF circuit – and from the fact her best Grand Slam performance came at the French Open last year when she entered round three.
This year again, Alexandrova made it to the third round at the Australian Open and with a lot more confidence under her belt the 31st-ranked Russian has repeated the dose here at Roland-Garros.
Interestingly, both of Alexandrova’s wins have come over Aussies, Maddison Inglis and Astra Sharma, and both by identical scorelines – 6-3, 6-3. With all those threes together, can Alexandrova now make it past her previous best round three showing?
Svitolina v Alexandrova Prediction and Tip
Svitolina’s shock dip in that second set against Zarazua, she has been in some good form, having now won eight of her previous nine matches on clay. She will be a favourite to deliver the goods in this match against a player who has struggled to beat the top players on this surface. A straight-set win is at 5/6 for Svitolina.
Tip: Svitolina to win: 4/11 (bet365)
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The French Open 2020 will be played from September 27 to October 11. You can watch & bet on the French Open here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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