Some of the first round action at the 2023 Strasbourg Open will see Varvara Gracheva playing Bai Zhuoxuan and Kimberly Birrell taking on Elena Malogina. Get the latest predictions along with the odds, preview and head to head for these matches along with Lauren Davis v Sarah Iliev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Angelina Gabueva.
Varvara Gracheva v Bai Zhuoxuan Preview
Head-to-Head: No previous matches have been played between Gracheva and Zhuoxuan.
Gracheva wasn’t quite having the kind of clay court run that she would have liked as she fell to three successive defeats in Charleston, Madrid and Rome.
What this meant was that the 46th-ranked player was forced to feature in a WTA 125 tournament in Paris where she managed to win three matches in a row to make the semifinal.
While Diane Parry then knocked her out easily, Gracheva does enter this tournament with some confidence. And with a 236th-ranked player up against her in this opener, she shouldn’t have a lot of trouble.
Zhuoxuan isn’t quite well known on the circuit yet, but she has done well on the ITF tour in hardcourt competitions. She has already clinched a couple of these titles but on clay it’s not been as good. In fact the two matches she played in the qualifiers here were just her fifth and sixth career matches on clay.
She will hope to use this match as an experience.
Gracheva v Zhuoxuan Tip
Gracheva to win in straight sets: 1/2
Kimberly Birrell v Elena Malogina Preview
Head-to-Head: Birrell and Malogina have never faced off in a competitive match before this.
Birrell has climbed up to 111th in the world which is her career-best ranking and that has been thanks to her performances on the ITF circuit.
The Aussie won a tournament in Orlando, and added a quarterfinal appearance at the Merida Open on the WTA Tour. Since then, however, she has struggled a tad on clay, and is on a three-match losing streak. This includes a match on the ITF circuit, a qualifier in Rome and another one at the Madrid ITF tournament.
The good news for Birrell is she now faces a player who is 361st in the world and come into this tournament on the back of a couple of qualifying wins. Malogina herself hadn’t played in a single match on clay before the qualifiers here but did well to come through.
The Estonian overcame Myrtille Georges and Severine Deppner to make the first round and will now hope she can adjust to the slower courts having won an ITF title on hardcourt and carpet.
Malogina also has a clay court competition win in 2021 but with just two matches on the surface this season, this could turn out to be an interesting one.
Birrell v Malogina Tip
Birrell to win in straight sets: 1/2
Lauren Davis v Sarah Iliev Preview
Head-to-Head: Davis has never played Iliev in a competitive match before this.
Davis has featured in this tournament on seven previous occasions and over the last four times, she has lost in the first round each time. This will be her chance to get out of that rut as she takes on a player ranked outside the top 750.
Aged a mere 16 years, Iliev made it to the main draw of this tournament in Strasbourg with back to back three-set wins in the qualifiers.
Iliev first overcame Ellen Perez from being a set down and then defeated Zhuoxuan Bai in the second qualifier (Bai would later make it through as a lucky loser as mentioned earlier).
Davis hasn’t had the best of times on clay this season with first round defeats at the Charleston Open, and in Madrid and Rome. She opted to feature in Reus in a WTA 125 tournament and made the semifinal there before Sorana Cirstea knocked her out.
This will be a good chance for Davis to pull through her first win.
Davis v Iliev Tip
Davis to win in straight sets: 1/3
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Angelina Gabueva Preview
Head-to-Head: Their only previous meeting came on the ITF circuit where Pavlyuchenkova was leading 4-1 in the first set when Gabueva retired from the encounter. It was played in 2008!
This is a match between a player ranked 506th and another ranked 986th in the world. The one big difference, however, is that Pavlyuchenkova is a former world number 11 coming back into the reckoning after being out through most part of the previous season while Gabueva has never been a top-400 player.
The one thing to note here is Gabueva has also had her time on the sidelines as she focussed on her doubles play where she has made a couple of WTA finals as well.
Here, however, she faces a player in the form of Pavlyuchenkova who is showing some signs of her former sparkle. Pavlyuchenkova made the second round at both, the Madrid Open and Italian Open and the former French Open runner-up will now look to advance a lot further in this tournament.
Pavlyuchenkova v Gabueva Tip
Pavlyuchenkova to win in straight sets: 1/2
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The 2023 Strasbourg Open will be played from May 21 to 26. Get our ultimate guide on tennis betting and predictions here.
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