The 10th seeded Wang Qiang will face Jasmine Paolini of italy in the second round of the 2021 WTA Gippsland Trophy on Monday, February 1, with the match likely to begin at around 2:30 pm local time (4 am BST or 10 pm Eastern Time previous day). Get the live streaming options of this Wang Qiang v Jasmine Paolini match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Wang Qiang v Jasmine Paolini Head to Head
There have been no previous meetings between Wang Qiang and Jasmine Paolini.
Also Read:
Qiang Missed All of Season after Pandemic
A former world number 12, China’s Wan Qiang missed the entire part of the season once tennis resumed following the pandemic break. Which means she hadn’t played competitive tennis for a period of nearly 11 months when the world number 34 took to court in the first round of the WTA Abu Dhabi earlier in January.
And the rustiness showed. Playing Daria Kasatkina in her opening round encounter, Qiang fell to a three-set defeat, losing 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
Things had begun well for the Chinese player last season though, when first she reached the quarterfinal at the Shenzhen Open and then shocked Serena Williams at the Australian Open to make it to the fourth round. While she lost to Ons Jabeur in the fourth round, a confident Qiang then proceeded to make it to the quarterfinal of the Hua Hin Open after that.
It was around this time things began to go wrong for Qiang as she first fell to a shock defeat Leonie Kung, a player who has never seen the inside of the top 140 on the tennis ranking charts. And then drawing Elise Mertens in back to back tournaments in Dubai and Doha in the first round, she won a grand total of six games across those two matches.
Can Qiang turn things around here?
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Paolini Pulls Past Marino
Such has been Jasmine Paolini’s form on hard court surfaces that coming up against a player ranked 313rd in the world, Rebecca Marino, she was still a second favourite according to the bookmakers.
Which is also why Paolini would be specially pleased with her grinding but straight-set win over Marino, helping her make it to the second round of this competition. Paolini won 7-6, 6-3.
This followed a pretty ordinary start to the season at Abu Dhabi where the Italian world number 97 lost to Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-2 in her opener there. This followed an abysmal 2020 in which Paolini played in nine matches across WTA and ITF circuits and won just one match – and that came in the qualifiers at the Shenzhen Open early in 2020.
Can she now push her Chinese opponent enough to give her some more confidence heading into the Australian Open?
Qiang v Paolini Prediction and Tip
Qiang is 1/3 to win this which looks quite a likely result given Paolini’s obvious struggles on this surface. For a slightly riskier option, go with the games handicap here.
Tip: Games Handicap Wang -4.5: 5/6 (bet365)
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The 2021 WTA Gippsland Trophy in Melbourne will be played from January 31. You can watch & bet on the these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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