World number 18 Victoria Azarenka will face the 22nd-ranked Donna Vekic in the second round of the 2023 WTA Cincinnati Open on Wednesday, August 16. Get the predictions and odds of this Victoria Azarenka v Donna Vekic match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Victoria Azarenka v Donna Vekic Head to Head
There have been three previous meetings between these two players and Vekic leads 2-1. All these matches came in hardcourt competitions played between 2019 and 2020 including two at the Cincinnati Open where both have won one apiece.
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Azarenka Tames Krejcikova
In what was probably expected to be one of the closest matches of the first round – at least in terms of their rankings – world number 18 Azarenka met the 11th-ranked Barbora Krejcikova. There was absolutely nothing to choose between the two with Azarenka starting out at 5/6 while Krejcikova being at 1/1.
Which is why Azarenka’s 6-3, 7-5 win over Krejcikova would give her a lot of confidence and even help her make it very deep in this competition.
In a match lasting an hour and 50 minutes, Azarenka was up 2-0 in the first set and down 0-2 in the second but in both cases found a way to clinch it. Krejcikova broke back in the seventh game of the opening set, only for Azarenka to repeat the dose and take a 5-3 lead.
She would soon serve it out to grab the set.
In the second, Krejcikova had a chance to serve it out at 5-3 but Azarenka broke her twice in a row to seal her second round berth.
Can she now do the same to Vekic as well?
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Vekic Edges Out Brady
While Vekic is ranked 22nd in the world and Jennifer Brady is still some way away from getting to her best after her two-year layoff, the two had gone into the encounter knowing this could turn out to be a close affair.
And that’s exactly how it went with Vekic edging through to a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over her American opponent.
Vekic needed upwards of two hours and was forced to overcome three breaks of serve to edge past Brady, with the second set proving to specially difficult for the Croat. Twice in that set, Vekic fell a break down with Brady getting a chance to serve it out at 5-4 at one stage there.
The world number 22 broke back and then did that again in the 12th game, winning it off her fourth match-point and proceeding to the second round – in the process registering her first main draw win here since 2019.
Things could get a lot tougher against Azarenka.
Azarenka v Vekic Prediction and Tip
Azarenka will not have it easy but we think she holds the edge here and should come through. Might see a third set too.
Tips:
- Low Risk Tip: Azarenka to win: 8/11
- Moderate Risk Tip: Over 21.5 games in the match: 5/6
The 2023 WTA Cincinnati Open will be played from August 13 to 20. 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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