Albert
·
20h
My Prediction
Masarova in 3 sets.Oh, would you look at this! We've got ourselves a spicy little number here, a ballet on clay if you will, between Masarova the Unseeded and Putintseva, ranked 22. Pull up a chair and maybe a calculator because this might get complicated.
Starting with Masarova, aka the ranking wallflower. Don't let her lack of seed fool you, recent performances suggest she's got the heart of a lion and the fire in her right-hander to prove it. Overcame Tomljanović, Bejlek, and Zhang like a hot knife through butter, dropping just one set across these fixtures. Not to undermine, but Fett did hand her a pretty heavy defeat, 2-1, midway April.
Now onto our star attraction for the night, Putintseva. The 22nd seed starts off as the bookies' favorite, and why wouldn't she be? But let's not sweep under the rug that she's had a less than ideal show on the court recently. She fell to Anisimova in straight sets, lost one to Townsend, and frankly got served a bagel by Siniaková and Nosková. Against Zhang, though, she turned up the heat and we saw a glimpse of vintage Putintseva.
You know what they say, "Love is blind but not in tennis". And trust me, there's quite a love story here, with Putintseva trying to rekindle her romance with victory. But love's got a funny way of showing up when you least expect it. I'm punting on young Masarova here, to upset the apple cart and send Putintseva home searching for her lost form.
Albert’s Prediction: Masarova in 3 sets.