The remaining first round matches at the 2019 Linz Open and a few of the second round matches will be played on Wednesday, October 9 as Kiki Bertens leads the action. Here’s Kiki Bertens v Misaki Doi and Julia Goerges v Andrea Petkovic tips, previews and predictions for these opening round matches.
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Kiki Bertens v Misaki Doi Predictions & Preview
In what will be the fourth match between Kiki Bertens and Misaki Doi, the pair face off in Linz on Wednesday. They haven’t played since the Nurnberg Open match of 2017 in which Bertens won after Doi retired following the first set. Overall, Bertens leads 2-1, with Doi’s only win over her having come in Sydney 2013.
Bertens is coming off a very strong showing at the China Open where she reached the semi-final. There were wins over Donna Vekic and Elina Svitolina in that tournament before she went down to Ash Barty. Before that, Bertens had endured bit of a horror, with only a third round entry at the US Open to show for her efforts.
Doi has had a much better season than usual, with a title win on clay and a finals at the Hiroshima Open taking her to 74th in the world. She was a quarter-finalist at the Osaka Open and came through the qualifiers here. Now she is faced with the task of taking down the world number eight which might be a stiff one but can she push her opponent here?
Tip: Bertens to win in straight sets: 8/13 with Unibet
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Julia Goerges v Andrea Petkovic Tips Predictions & Preview
Germans Julia Goerges and Andrea Petkovic will be facing off for the sixth time in their careers and there isn’t much to separate the two so far. Petkovic, a former world number nine, leads 3-2 on head to head which includes a win in the first round of this tournament last year. It turned out to be a humdinger with Petkovic winning 6-4 in the final set.
She had gone on to make the semi-finals of this competition last year.
Petkovic is also coming off a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Jill Teichmann after having won a couple of matches at the China Open qualifiers before making the second round there. Goerges, now ranked 27th in the world but like her opponent was also once ninth, made the fourth round at the US Open but had played just one match since then before this tournament. It was a surprise defeat to Polona Hercog in Beijing last week.
Expecting this to be a hard-fought one and while Goerges will be a favourite, the lack of tennis action might make it tough for her.
Tip: Three sets in the match: 8/5 with Unibet
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Ekaterina Alexandrova v Kristyna Pliskova Predictions & Preview
These two played as recently as the Seoul Open two weeks ago and it was a three-setter that went in favour of Ekaterina Alexandrova. Alexandrova’s current ranking of 35th in the world is her best ever and comes on the back of her third round entry at the China Open last week where she also defeated Simona Halep. Earlier, in that Seoul Open, she made it to the semi-finals.
Pliskova will be playing her first indoors match this season but her record over 2016-17 indoors was a whopping 39-11 – which obviously included the lower circuit as well. With the confidence of having made it to the semi-final at Tashkent under her belt too, this might end up being another match of grit. Three sets expected.
Tip: Three sets in the match: 8/5 with Unibet
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Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Barbara Haas Predictions & Preview
This will be the first meeting between Barbara Haas and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and this looks like an easy one to call. Haas, with a best-ever ranking of 134th in the world, has done most of her wining on clay this season while Pavlyuchenkova has had a runner-up trophy at the Osaka Open recently under her belt. Should be a straightforward one for the Russian.
Tip: Games Handicap Pavlyuchenkova+5.5: 10/11 with Unibet
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