World No. 19, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan will take on Paula Badosa of Spain, the world 31, in the third round of the 2021 Cincinnati Open on Thursday, August 19. Get the live streaming options of this Elena Rybakina v Paula Badosa match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Elena Rybakina v Paula Badosa Head to Head
The pair have played each other twice before, and their head-to-head record is one win apiece. Badosa won their semi-final in the Baltic Open in 2018, but Rybakina won in Bucharest a year later. Both those two previous matches were on clay.
Rybakina Cruises Through
Rybakina finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, losing her bronze medal match to Elina Svitolina in three sets.
She had never been beyond the first round in Cincinnati before but now she finds herself one match away from the quarter-finals after two comfortable victories so far this week.
The 22-year old began with a match against the wildcard Samantha Stosur, but the Australian veteran caused her few problems, and one break of serve in the first set and two in the second helped her ease through to a meeting with Elise Mertens, the world number 16, who was seeded 15.
Mertens was the first to threaten to break in the first set, but she could not take the opportunities offered to her and was made to pay as she was broken in turn next game. Rybakina consolidated her lead to claim the set.
When Mertens was broken at the start of the second set, Rybakina had control of the match and she never relinquished it. Instead, she underlined her dominance with a further break, and served out to love.
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Badosa Saves Match Points and Then Beats Sabalenka
Badosa’s own Olympic hopes were ended when she was forced to retire from her quarter-final match with Marketa Vondrousova with an injury.
However, she has shown all the fighting qualities that made her a medal contender this week, with two very hard fought victories.
In her first round match she had to save no fewer than seven match points against Petra Martic of Croatia, before finally progressing through via a third-set tie-break.
And then she faced Arnya Sabalenka of Belarus, the world number three, in the second round on Wednesday.
The pair swapped breaks in the first set and then again, but, serving to stay in the set, Badosa was broken for a third time.
However, she regrouped, broke Sabalenka midway through the second set, and then consolidated that with another break to square the match.
The third set saw two breaks of serve apiece but, with nothing able to separate them, it came down to a tie-break again.
Badosa achieved the only mini-break, and held on to it for a notable win.
Rybakina v Badosa Prediction and Tip
The two women have reached this stage in vastly different styles. Rybakina has been able to cruise through, whilst Badosa had to dig very deep in both her matches. That will have taken its toll on the Spaniard, and makes Rybakina favourite, if only because she should be the fresher of the pair.
Tip: Rybakina to win: 3/4 (Click Here to Bet with bet365)
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The 2021 Cincinnati Open will be played from August 16 to 22. You can watch & bet on these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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