World number 16 Elise Mertens will face the 27th-ranked Karolina Muchova in the fourth round of the 2021 Australian Open on Monday, February 15, with the match likely to begin at around 11 am local time (12 noon BST or 7 pm Eastern Time previous day). Get the live streaming options of this Elise Mertens v Karolina Muchova match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Elise Mertens v Karolina Muchova Head to Head
There was one previous match played between Mertens and Muchova before this, which came at the 2020 Ostrava Open. Played on an indoor hard court, Mertens drilled home a 6-4, 6-2 win over Muchova to move into the quarterfinal.
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Mertens Crushes Bencic
After finishing the previous season with a stupendous 32-13 win-loss record, Mertens continues to drill home the advantage. By beating Belinda Bencic in the third round of this Australian Open, the Belgian has now registered seven wins in a row this year, which included her sixth WTA title in the Gippsland Trophy last year.
Coming into her third round match against the Swiss world number 12 as a heavy favourite, at 1/5, Mertens kept her appointment with the fourth round as she romped to a 6-2, 6-1 victory. The match barely lasted an hour, saw Mertens break her opponent five times but most pertinently faced not a single break-point in return.
On the one hand, Mertens also hit 22 winners but the level at which she was playing, the Belgian chalked up only seven unforced errors against her name.
The Mertens victory comes at the back of wins over Leylah Fernandez and Lin Zhu in the first two rounds here and Caroline Garcia, Elina Svitolina and Kaia Kanepi in the tuneup tournament in Melbourne. Can she make it eight in a row?
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Karolina Goes Past Karolina!
Karolina Muchova was Karolina Pliskova’s hitting partner during the quarantine in the lead-up to the start of the Australian Open and it looked like it had helped her close the gap on her fellow countrywoman’s game. Although the match lasted nearly two hours, Muchova managed to keep it down to a straight-set victory, beating the former world number one 7-5, 7-5 to march into the fourth round.
Muchova didn’t make the most perfect of starts to the encounter as she lost her serve in successive games, but managed to pull things back by levelling it 3-3. She soon saved a break-point but didn’t miss out when she got her own opportunity in the 11th game of the set.
Saving two more break-points, she served out the set to take the lead.
When Pliskova fought back to break her opponent twice and went 5-0 up in the second set, it looked like we would need a decider but Muchova wasn’t done. A struggling hold helped her get on the board in the second set, and she retaliated with three back to back breaks to clinch seven games in a row and win the encounter against an increasingly frustrated Pliskova.
Now comes a different, and a far tougher test for Muchova, who has already beaten Jelena Ostapenko and Mona Barthel in the tournament so far.
Mertens v Muchova Prediction and Tip
Mertens is 8/15 to win this, and we believe those are quite good odds for someone in this kind of a rampaging form. Rarely has Mertens lost to someone lower-ranked than her in recent times. For a slightly riskier bet, go for the under 21.5 games in the match.
Tip: Mertens to win: 8/15 (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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