World number 17 Elise Mertens faces British player Katie Boulter in the second round of the 2021 Miami Open on Friday, March 26. The match is yet to be scheduled. Get the live streaming options of this Elise Mertens v Katie Boulter match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Elise Mertens v Katie Boulter Head to Head
No previous matches have been played between the in-form Mertens and the 319th-ranked Boulter.
Also Read:
Mertens’ Already Pocketed a Title This Year
One of the few players who seem to have picked up from where they left off last season, Mertens has featured in three tournaments so far in 2021 and done well in all of them. She would have expected to go further than the fourth round at the Australian Open, sure, but it took a lot out of the surprise semifinalist Karolina Muchova to get past the Belgian in that round of 16 encounter.
Other than that, Mertens enters the Miami Open knowing she can do a lot better than her best ever showing in this tournament before this – back to back third round exits in the 2018 and 2019 editions of this competition.
And the confidence would come from her showing at both, the Gippsland Trophy just prior to the Australian Open and the ATP Dubai after it where she reached the semifinal. In getting those results, Mertens has already beaten the likes of Elina Svitolina. Shelby Rogers and Jessica Pegula and her only loss came at the hands of the in-form Garbine Muguruza.
Again, it was a fighting defeat and an indicator of how Mertens is getting closer to upsetting a really big-shot player – Svitolina’s defeat notwithstanding.
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Boulter Overcomes the Pliskova Challenge
It wasn’t easy or pretty but Boulter managed to scrape through with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Kristyna Pliskova in her opening round encounter. Broken thrice in the entire match, Boulter responded with five breaks of serves of her own, while warding off the 10 aces her opponent smashed in the match.
Four breaks of serve in the first set brought the two players to 4-4 in the opening set when Pliskova carved out the all-important break off the only break-point she got in the match. And when she got herself a set-point, Pliskova served it out to go ahead.
Things turned around in the second set when Boulter began to show better control over the big points and when she broke her opponent in the fourth game of the set, she had got the match back in control.
The final set saw Boulter get herself a break off the third break-point she got, and then broke again in the ninth game as Pliskova served to stay in the match. Off her third match-point, Boulter converted it to win the encounter.
Mertens v Boulter Prediction and Tip
Mertens is a very strong favourite here and we believe she has it in her to win this in straight sets but we could see over 17.5 games in the encounter.
Tip: Mertens to win AND Over 17.5 games in the match: 10/11 (bet365)
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The 2021 Miami Open will be played from March 22 to April 4. You can watch & bet on these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.