Third seeded Serena Williams’ hunt for her 24th Grand Slam title will continue with her second round match against Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan in a second round match at the US Open 2020. The match will be played on Thursday, September 3 and the timings of this match will be released soon. Get the live streaming options of this Serena Williams v Margarita Gasparyan match along with its preview, head to head and tips here.
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Serena Williams v Margarita Gasparyan Head to Head
This will be the third match between Serena and Gasparyan with the former world number one having won both the previous times in straight sets. Both those matches came at a Grand Slam, a first round at the 2015 Wimbledon and fourth round of the 2016 Australian Open.
Incidentally that fourth round appearance at the Australian Open was Gasparyan’s best ever showing at majors.
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Serena Starts Slow But Catches On
Serena Williams wasn’t quick off the blocks in the first set of her opening round match against Kristie Ahn as she lost her very first service game and her opponent took a 2-0 lead. However, she slowly made her way back into the encounter by breaking Ahn back immediately and pushing her hard after that.
The world number eight got her opportunity to go ahead in the 12th game of the opening set, with Ahn serving at 5-6. With two break-points to her name, Serena clinched the set with the first one she had.
What was interesting was Serena was broken at the start of the second set as well. And for the second time in a row, Ahn was off to a 2-0 lead but this time around, Serena wasted no time in getting back and rattled off five games in a row before closing out the match 7-5, 6-3.
On the one hand, Serena will be relieved to win the match in straight sets – it was her first straight-set win since beating Jelena Ostapenko in the Fed Cup. On the other, she would know she isn’t at her best yet and will need to wary of those pitfalls – like the 24 unforced errors – in the matches to come.
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Gasparyan Edges out Former Olympics Gold Medallist
The last time Gasparyan had won a competitive tennis match, not too many had heard of the coronvirus pandemic – it came in the first round of an ITF tournament in January this year. She lost the second round there, and then went on a seven-match losing streak.
Losses at the St. Petersburg Open, Dubai and Doha before the pandemic break were followed by a defeat at an exhibition competition during the tennis pause. And on return she went down in the first qualifier she played at both, Lexington and the Cincinnati Open.
Which is why, Monica Puig started off as a favourite in their first round match here, bookmakers offering 3/5 for her win. Fortunately for Gasparyan, she was off to a quick start and while she was blanked in the second set tie-breaker, the Russian came back well to complete a hard-fought but highly relieving three-set win.
Things will obviously get a lot tougher now for Gasparyan but with some of the old confidence back, she would like to go out on to the court and enjoy herself here.
Serena v Gasparyan Prediction & Tip
Despite Serena’s recent struggles, there is no doubt she would be a near-surety for a straight-set win here against an opponent who is ranked outside the top 100 and has won next to nothing this season.
Tip: Serena to win in straight sets: 1/2 (bet365)
The US Open 2020 will be played from August 31 to September 13. You can watch & bet on the US Open here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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