Seventh seed Zhang Shuai of china will meet the United States’ Emina Bektas in the first round of the 2023 Birmingham Classic on Tuesday, June 20. Get the predictions and odds of this Zhang Shuai v Emina Bektas match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Zhang Shuai v Emina Bektas Head to Head
This will be a first meeting between the two.
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Zhang on a Nine-Match Losing Streak
Last year’s finalist Zhang Shuai returns to Birmingham this season, but she is in woeful form.
Last year, the Chinese player had made it to the final against Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, but she could not complete the match, withdrawing from the contest in the first set.
A quarterfinalist in Wimbledon in 2019, Zhang has featured in two grass court finals, losing both of them. Overall she has three WTA titles from six finals.
Zhang will be hoping for a turn of fortunes on grass. The world no. 36 has had an extremely poor season so far. Zhang’s best performance this year saw her reach the fourth round of the Australian Open. She also won a match at the Lyon Open but has not won another match this season.
She comes into the tournament on the back of nine consecutive defeats, having won her last match on January 31 at the Lyon Open.
Zhang’s most recent defeat came in the first round in Nottingham, where she went down to Tatjana Maria in straight sets.
Can Birmingham change her fortunes?
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Bektas Makes it Into the Main Draw
World no. 150 Emina Bektas is in terrific form on grass court this season and the American qualified for the main draw in Birmingham with back-to-back straight set wins in the qualifying rounds.
Bektas ousted America’s Caroline Dolehide 6-3, 7-5 in the first qualifying round on Saturday and then she knocked out Marcela Zacarías with a 6-3, 6-0 victory in the second qualifying round on Sunday.
The 30-year-old American has featured in three ITF finals this year, winning two of them. One of those titles came on grass in Kurme, Japan. She carried that form to ‘s-Hertogenbosch, her first tour-level grass court tournament of the season. She won both her qualifying rounds and then won the first two rounds to reach the quarterfinals, before falling to Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Bektas is 11-1 on grass this season and that includes the qualifying and ITF matches.
This will just be her second tour level event of the season. Can she continue to impress in Birmingham?
Zhang v Bektas Prediction and Tip
Zhang is ranked 114 places higher than Bektas, she is also the more experienced player and has had a lot more success on grass at the highest level than Bektas. However, the Chinese player is woefully out of form, while Bektas has been in excellent form on grass court. So despite being the seventh seed and last year’s finalist Zhang wouldn’t be the favourite in this contest.
Tips:
- Low Risk Tip: Bektas to win: 1/2
- Moderate Risk Tip: Over 22.5 games in the match: 5/6
The 2023 Birmingham Open will be played from June 19 to 25. You can get all the tennis betting news with our tennis betting blog here. Also get rest of the tennis match previews here.
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