World No. 61, and number seven seed, Kristina Mladenovic of France will take on Kurumi Nara of Japan, ranked 155th in the world in the second round of the 2021 Nottingham Open on Wednesday, June 9. Get the live streaming options of this Kristina Mladenovic v Kurumi Nara match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Kristina Mladenovic v Kurumi Nara Head to Head
The pair have played each other three times before, and Mladenovic leads their head to head series by two matches to one. The Frenchwoman won in Taipei in 2012 and Nara got her revenge in Washington two years later.
However, on their one previous meeting on grass at Hertogenbosch in 2015, Mladenovic won in three sets.
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Mladenovic Hoping to Make Solid Grass Start
Mladenovic is one of the world’s best doubles players, and is the current world ranked number one player, although she chose not to compete in the women’s event at this year’s French Open.
She has been in eleven Grand Slam finals, winning seven of them, including the Mixed Doubles at Wimbledon in 2013, finishing a beaten finalist in the women’s tournament the following year.
Her singles record at the All-England Club is more modest – the best she has managed is two third round appearances, in 2015, and again in 2018.
She began the well year, reaching the third round at the Australian Open and on home soil in Lyon. Results though have tailed off since then, and she has not gone beyond the second round of any event, losing at the stage in her home Grand Slam to Anett Kontaveit in her home Grand Slam last week.
However, after getting a bye ion the first round in Nottingham, she will be hoping to progress a bit further in this tournament.
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Are Nara’s Best Days Behind Her?
Nara was ranked as high as 32 in the world back in 2014, the same year she won her solitary WTA title on clay at the Rio Open. That same year she also reached the final in Washington, before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova.
That was a time when she regularly appeared in the main draws of Grand Slams, but the intervening period has not been kind to her due to struggles with form and fitness, and she has dropped out of the top 100, and has to rely on qualifying to get through to major tournaments these days.
By her own admissions she prefers to play on hard courts and her record at Wimbledon is modest. She has never been beyond the second round there.
However, she overcame the challenge of Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria in the first round to earn the right to play Mladenovic.
The first set saw both women initially struggled to hold serve, but it was the Bulgarian who was the first to crack. Nara could not hold on to her lead, it reverted back to serve, but staying to serve in the set, Tomova faltered once more, and Nara claimed the set.
This time it was Nara who dropped her serve first but she hit back to level, and earned herself two match points, both of which the Bulgarian saved.
It eventually went to a tie-break, during which Tomova was the stronger player, and it meant a third set was needed.
However, Nara immediately took control again by breaking in the opening service game and later in the set, Tomova had four break points in one game, could not take any of them, and was promptly broken again, ending her resistance.
Mladenovic v Nara Prediction and Tip
Mladenovic should be too strong for Nara, even though neither is a natural grass player. The Frenchwoman has won a Wimbledon title though, and that knowledge will stand her in good stead in this match.
Besides, Mladenovic won the only previous match between the pair on grass, and that was when Nara was close to her peak.
Tip: Mladenovic to win in straight sets: 10/11 (Click Here to Bet with bet365)
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The 2021 Nottingham Open will be played from June 6-13. You can watch & bet on these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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