World number 27 Karolina Muchova will face up to the challenge for Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in the opening round of the 2021 Australian Open on Tuesday, February 9, with the match likely to begin at around 10 am local time (11 pm BST or 6 pm Eastern Time previous day). Get the live streaming options of this Karolina Muchova v Jelena Ostapenko match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Karolina Muchova v Jelena Ostapenko Head to Head
Muchova and Ostapenko have never played a competitive match before this.
Also Read:
Muchova Unbeaten But Fitness a Concern
The 27th-ranked Czech has played in three matches across two tournaments and lost none, but her fitness has been a question-mark.
Participating in the WTA Abu Dhabi, she defeated the 70th-ranked Danka Kovinic in the first round only to withdraw from her second round match against Daria Kasatkina because of an injury.
Over in Melbourne, featuring in the Gippsland Trophy, she didn’t waste too much time in getting past Caty McNally before edging past Jasmine Paolini in the third round. However, Muchova withdrew from her quarterfinal against Kaia Kanepi because of what was described as an abdominal issue.
Muchova hadn’t had the best of starts to 2020 following a brilliant previous season, but on her return after the pandemic break, she did manage to reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows. Her best Grand Slam performance had earlier come at Wimbledon in 2019 where she reached the quarterfinal but here in Melbourne she has never gone past the second round.
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Ostapenko Coming off Third Round in Melbourne Tune-Up
Having struggled through 2020, arguably because of the pandemic and other form issues, a good start to the season was a must for Ostapenko to try and carve something out of the early part of 2021. And that’s what she got from the first two wins in this competition, beating Sara Errani and Danka Kovinic in the first two rounds of the tournament.
And while she went down to Elina Svitolina, it wasn’t before she had given her much higher-ranked opponent a scare, grabbing the first set in a tie-breaker.
Ostapenko, who is a former French Open champion, doesn’t enjoy hard court surfaces too much, especially at the Grand Slam level, and her best performance across 14 majors at the Australian Open and US Open is a third round appearance on multiple occasions.
While the Latvian would want to do better than that, she faces a tough one first up but with the draw not looking too dangerous after that, she would want to dig deep in this one.
Muchova v Ostapenko Prediction and Tip
While Muchova is a favourite, her fitness issues haven’t allowed the bookmakers to go all out on her and she starts off at 4/7 to win this. A tight match here could mean we could be looking a three-setter.
Tip: Over 20.5 games in the match: 4/5 (bet365)
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The 2021 Australian Open will be played from February 8 to 21. You can watch & bet on the these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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