The two Chinese 27-year-olds Zheng Saisai and Lin Zhu will face off in the second round of the 2021 WTA Monterrey with the match to be played on Thursday, March 18. Get the live streaming options of this A v B match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Zheng Saisai v Lin Zhu Head to Head
Their first ever meeting came on the ITF circuit, where Zheng was a winner in three sets. This was followed by their first WTA match, in the 2014 US Open qualifiers and there have been two other encounters in Kuala Lumpur and Nanchang, with Saisai having won each of the four times.
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Saisai Breaks Seven-Match Duck
When Saisai made it to the quarterfinal of the WTA Doha last season with wins over Marketa Vondrousova and Kiki Bertens, little would she have known how difficult winning would go on to become for her. That quarterfinal defeat to Aryna Sabalenka was followed by the pandemic-induced tennis pause for the WTA circuit and even when the sport resumed in August, Saisai opted not to play the rest of the season.
Saisai finally made her comeback earlier this year but it has been rather slow going for the world number 52. In fact, even slow-going sounds like a misnomer.
Over the six tournaments that Saisai featured in before entering this one, she had won nothing. The Australian Open came and went, so did the tournaments in Doha and Dubai and three others in Australia but Saisai’s best performance was winning a set in each of the first three matches of the year.
So when she took on Varvara Gracheva in the opening round here, an eighth successive defeat looked more likely of the results. Thankfully for Saisai, she went on to oust Gracheva in straight sets, in turn winning her first match in over a year.
Would her confidence have grown enough for her to make it two in two?
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Zhu Stuns Bouchard
Eugenie Bouchard had come into this tournament on the back of a runnerup trophy at the WTA Guadalajara and was an overwhelming favourite against Lin Zhu. Instead, in a match that saw nine breaks of serve, Zhu came up trumps to carve out a 7-5, 7-6 (3) win and move into the second round.
In a match of swinging fortunes, Zhu broke Bouchard in the first game only to go 3-1 behind. She then exchanged service breaks which took Bouchard to a 5-2 lead in the opener.
A set defeat looked imminent for Zhu but she didn’t give up, breaking her opponent in successive games to grab the first set. In the second, Zhu drew first blood in the seventh game but was broken back immediately in the eighth, one of the longest games of recent times.
The set went into the tie-breaker and Zhu raced off to a 4-1 lead before putting the finishing touches on the match off her second match-point.
Saisai v Zhu Prediction and Tip
While Saisai is a favourite here, we think Zhu would be no pushover given the form issues for her opponent and the games handicap could actually be a decent bet.
Tip: Games Handicap Zhu +2.5: 10/11 (bet365)
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The 2021 WTA Monterrey Open will be played from March 14-21. You can watch & bet on these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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