World number 67 Sorana Cirstea faces Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova, ranked 129th in the world in the first round of the 2021 WTA Istanbul Open on Monday, April 19. Get the live streaming options of this Sorana Cirstea v Kateryna Kozlova match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Sorana Cirstea v Kateryna Kozlova Head to Head
No previous matches have been played between Cirstea and Kozlova before this encounter.
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Cirstea Hoping for Solid Start on Clay
Cirstea’s record on clay hasn’t been the best and that is reflected in the manner in which she hasn’t won a single match on this surface since the 2019 French Open. A first round victory there was followed by a second round loss to Aliona Bolsova after which Cirstea hasn’t won anything over five more matches.
This includes first round defeats in Bastad, Bucharest, Jurmala, Palermo and Roland-Garros, which leaves the Romanian player with a lot of thinking to do.
The world number 67 has had a modest start to this season as well. There have been two solid showings, at the Grampians Trophy and the Australian Open, but three other competitions have resulted in early defeats.
While two of those losses came at the hands of Anett Kontaveit, the loss to Nina Stojanovic in Lyon was the most surprising.
The question now is if Cirstea can break her clay court duck by winning a match on this surface for a change?
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Kozlova Opens Her 2021 Season
The 2016 semifinalist at this event, Kozlova hasn’t played all of 2021 so far and there is no doubting her rustiness coming into this opening round match against Cirstea.
What could make it doubly difficult for Kozlova is even the whole of last season, she had played only 11 matches and lost seven of them. Only two of those victories came in the main draw of events. Her last match on clay, the only one of 2020, came at the French Open where she fell to Paula Badosa in the first round.
The good news for Kozlova is her record on dirt otherwise is quite solid. In 2019, for instance, she made it as far as the third round of the Madrid Open while in 2018, Kozlova knocked out the French Open defending champion Jelena Ostapenko in her opener.
That leaves us with an interesting match-up given on the one hand is a player who doesn’t enjoy too much of clay but has been around all season, while on the other is Kozlova who has been away from the tour for about six months now.
Cirstea v Kozlova Prediction and Tip
Cirstea starts off 1/3 to win this, and 5/6 to do that in straight sets. Backing the Romanian to come through without dropping a set.
Tip: Cirstea to win in straight sets: 5/6 (bet365)
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The 2021 WTA Istanbul Open will be played from April 19 to 25. You can watch & bet on these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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