British number one Johanna Konta will take to court for her second round match in the 2021 WTA Gippsland Trophy against Bernarda Pera on Monday, February 1. The match timing are yet to be released. Get the live streaming options of this Johanna Konta v Bernarda Pera match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Johanna Konta v Bernarda Pera Head to Head
The world number 14 Konta has faced Pera thrice before this and all those matches came in 2018. Interestingly, Pera leads 2-1 with none of the matches having seen the light of the third set.
Pera won at the Australian Open and on the clay courts of Madrid that year, while Konta’s sole win came at the Doha Open.
Also Read:
Two Semi-Finals in an Otherwise Barren Season for Konta
After achieving her career-best ranking of number four in the world in 2017, Konta has struggled to attain those heights again although she did have a good 2019 season in which she went from a season-low of 47th in the world to finishing the year ranked 12th.
2020 would have been a season in which she fell back to outside the top 30 had it not been for the change in the ranking system because of the pandemic, because Konta struggled to get going.
She showed a few sparks of her best self, making it to the semifinal at the Monterrey Open – losing to Marie Bouzkova in the end – and then another semifinal at the Western and Southern Open where she got past Maria Sakkari before falling to Victoria Azarenka.
Those two aside, however, Konta lost in the first round of five other tournaments, including French Open, which ended her season in 2020. A good two-month break would have given her time to think through what she wants and how should like to go about the season in 2021 coming into this encounter against the 63rd-ranked American.
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Pera Pushed by Unheralded Aussie
When a world number 63 is up against a player whose career-best WTA ranking has been 988th, you expect the former to win and do that easily. Pera, however, was in for a surprise when she stumbled in the first set of her opening round match against Olivia Gadecki and was staring at the wrong end of the barrell.
More so when Pera fell a break down in the second set as well.
However, the American’s experience helped her level things out when she broke back in the fourth game of the second before Gadecki dropped her serve again to love in the eighth game. Pera served out to win the set, and then got a decisive break of serve in the seventh game of the third set to wrap up the match.
This comes on the back of a struggle in 2020 as well, where Pera featured in eight tournaments after the pandemic break and won just three matches in them.
Konta v Pera Prediction and Tip
Despite coming off a tough previous season, Konta should have not a lot of worries in getting past Pera who has had her own problems all of 2020. Expect a straight-set victory for the Brit.
Tip: Konta to win in straight sets: 8/11 (bet365)
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The 2021 WTA Gippsland Trophy in Melbourne will be played from January 31. You can watch & bet on the these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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