World number 158 Despina Papamichail of Greece will take on the 381st-ranked and Bulgarian Isabella Shinikova on the first day of the 2023 United Cup to played on Thursday, December 29. Get the live streaming options of this Despina Papamichail v Isabella Shinikova match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Despina Papamichail v Isabella Shinikova Head to Head
There have no previous matches between these two players at the highest level but they did face off once on the ITF circuit last year and another time in the Bundesliga tennis league in 2021. On both occasions, it was Papamichail who came up a winner.
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Papamichail Hoping for a Better Showing Than 2022
While at 158th in the world, Papamichail is only 15 spots behind her career-best ranking, she would have loved to do a lot better than what she did last season.
The Greek player possessed a win-loss record of 35-38 across all forms of competitive tennis in 2022, most of which was at the ITF circuit level. To add to that, a few of those wins came at the qualifying stages of the competition which makes her overall record a little underwhelming.
To add to that, Papamichail hasn’t had the best record on hard court surfaces in recent time either but she will hope to take heart from the fact there has been an overall improvement in her play in recent times.
Like it took her till 2021 to qualify for her maiden WTA event and for the first time in 2021 and then the second time in 2022, she won a qualifying round at a Grand Slam.
Can she take down a player who is ranked outside the top 300?
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Shinikova Struggling to Stay Afloat
While Shinikova has a career-best ranking of 133rd in the world which is better than her opponent’s, it’s been a while since she reached that state. In fact the last time she was even in the top 200 of the ranking was in September 2020, nearly two and a half years ago.
Since then, the slide has been quite worrisome and with the exception of a brief period in 2022 where she was holding on to that spot in the top 225 of the WTA Rankings, things have looked under-par with the Bulgarian.
Such has been her struggle that Shinikova has been found wanting even in the early rounds of ITF competitions, having won just two main draw matches at that level since July 2022.
Can she now put up a fight against her Greek opponent who is ranked more than 200 places above her?
Papamichail v Shinikova Prediction and Tip
Papamichail will kick-start as a favourite here but this could also last the distance, going into a third set before the Greek scoops it.
Tips:
- Low Risk Tip: Papamichail to win: 1/2 (Click Here to Bet with bet365)
- High Risk Tip: Three sets in the match: 6/4 (Click Here to Bet with 888Sport)
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The 2023 United Cup will be played from December 29 to January 8. You can get all the tennis betting news with our tennis betting blog here. Also get rest of the tennis match previews here.
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