Second-seeded Dutch Kiki Bertens will meet the local favourite Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinal of the ongoing WTA St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy. This match will be played at 4 pm BST on Friday, February 1.
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Kiki Bertens v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Head to Head
The two players share a rivalry that started back in 2014. Since then, they have met a total of five times and Bertens is currently leading by a slim margin of 3-2. They last met in the second round of the recently concluded Australian Open, where Pavlyuchenkova won in three sets.
That was her second consecutive win over Bertens, with the first one coming in the second round of last year’s Wuhan Open.
Pavlyuchenkova Carries Her Momentum Forward
The unseeded Russian has been in a brilliant form over the last couple of weeks. In Melbourne, she was a quarterfinalist – a feat she achieved after edging past the likes of Bertens and Sloane Stephens.
Pavlyuchenkova continued to sing the same song in St. Petersburg as well. In her first match here, she defeated Alize Cornet in straight sets following which, she defeated the sixth seed Jelena Ostapenko in the next round.
She is a formidable player who had a rather decent spell in 2018. She won the title in Strasbourg and later in the season, reached the quarterfinal in Wuhan, Linz, and Moscow. It is worth mentioning that in Wuhan, she defeated Petra Kvitova in the third round.
Bertens Starts With a Straight-Set Win
The 27-year-old Dutch, who recently became the World No. 8, started her campaign in St. Petersburg with a straight-set win over the Belgian qualifier Ysaline Bonaventure. She won that match 6-4, 6-2.
Her campaign in the Australian Open was cut short early, courtesy of that shock defeat to Pavlyuchenkova. As she heads into this fixture, that defeat will definitely be on the back of her mind. Bertens hasn’t had the best of starts to the season. With the exception of Sydney, where she was a semifinalist, she has lost in the early rounds in all other tournaments.
However, it is still too early to say how it will pan out for Bertens this year. Last season, she won three titles following a poor start to the year – Charleston, Seoul, and Cincinnati. In fact, she started outside the top 30 and eventually moved up through the ranks to reach the top 10.
Bertens v Pavlyuchenkova – Prediction & Tips
This will be an evenly matched contest that can very well go either way. Pavlyuchenkova has won their last encounters and is in a superior form in comparison to Bertens.
At the same time, the Dutch has been far more successful on the tour than Pavlyuchenkova and that kind of experience will make a difference here. For that reason, Bertens will start as the favourite here and for that bet365 are offering 4/5.
You can watch & bet on Kiki Bertens v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova here on Friday, February 1. The match will start not before 2:00 pm local time (12:00 pm BST).
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