World number five Elina Svitolina will face up to the German challenge of Andrea Petkovic in the second round of the 2021 WTA Gippsland Trophy on Sunday, January 31, with the match likely to begin at around 2:30 pm local time (4 am BST or 10 pm Eastern Time previous day). Get the live streaming options of this Elina Svitolina v Andrea Petkovic match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Elina Svitolina v Andrea Petkovic Head to Head
There have been four previous matches between these two players including two at the WTA level, one in the Olympics and another at an exhibition competition.
Svitolina leads 2-0 on the WTA tour, while also winning their first round encounter in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Petkovic’s only win came in their last meeting which was held during the pandemic break, at the Bett competition.
Also Read:
Svitolina Makes Quarterfinal at Abu Dhabi
She would have loved to make it more than just the quarterfinal at the Abu Dhabi Open but Svitolina would take the result to kick-start the season. Wins over Jessica Pegula, Vera Zvonareva and Ekaterina Alexandrova saw her get to the final eight in that first WTA tournament of the season before she lost a thriller to Veronika Kudermetova.
What Svitolina, whose career-best ranking is number three, would really want is to go the distance at a Grand Slam, having never played in the final of any of the majors. And to do that she would love for as many practice in its lead-up, which is probably also why she opted to kick-start her season before landing in Australia.
Here, in Melbourne, she had a first round bye, and would like to do better than how things had gone last season. Svitolina had played in only Brisbane before the Australian Open, losing in the opener, and then got knocked out in the third round at the season’s first major.
The world number five would definitely be hunting for a better showing this time around and her journey begins in this tournament.
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Petkovic Trumps Trevisan in Opener
While Martina Trevisan became a household name with her showing in the French Open last season, Petkovic’s craftiness and experience helped her get better of her younger opponent in their opening round match here.
Petkovic, who has fallen to 102nd in the world right now after having played just seven matches last year, carved out a 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 win over Trevisan in their first round encounter.
In a match lasting two hours and 21 minutes, Petkovic stormed through the first set with four breaks of serve to her name before falling apart in the second as she dropped serve thrice.
The final set saw the fortunes fluctuate, with Petkovic holding a break advantage twice only to drop serve before she broke Trevisan in the 11th game and served it out in the 12th.
And while it was a win to remember for Petkovic, who featured in just one main draw match last season, she would also know it would need her to do a lot more than this to get back to her old consistent self.
Svitolina v Petkovic Prediction and Tip
This should be a fairly straightforward win for Svitolina who is 1/4 to clinch this. We are looking at a straight-set victory for the Ukrainian.
Tip: Svitolina 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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