Slightly better 12 month results for Martic. Much stronger hard court results for Kontaveit in the same period.
Martic was only broken once against Barbora Strycova although she faced 11 break points. In her first round match she had faced 13 break points against Su-Wei Hsieh and was broken 3 times in their 2 sets.
Kontaveit – Photo: TennisWorldUSA
Kontaveit has made the better start to 2020. She was broken 4 times by Pavlyuchenkova last night but immediately broke back each time. She was very comfortable against Sorana Cirstea in the first round. Cirstea had played well to come through the qualifying rounds.
Kontaveit leads their previous matches 3-2. They last met on a hard court in Adelaide last month. Pavlyuchenkova won in straight sets. She won their last 2 hard court matches.
Their 12 month results favour Kontaveit. She won 63% of her matches compared to 53% of Pavlyuchenkova. On hard courts in the same period she leads 69% to 53% matches won.
Kontaveit reached the quarter finals at the Australian Open. She had quite an easy draw to be fair with her only test coming from Iga Swiatek in the fourth round after Belinda Bencic had a nightmare in the third round and won just 1 game.
Pavlyuchenkova – photo: Tennis365
Pavlyuchenkova didn’t have a great season in 2019 but has started 2020 in much stronger form. IN Adelaide she beat Kontaveit and took a set from Halep. She then also reached the quarter finals of the Australian Open. This week she struggled with court conditions in her opening set with Belinda Bencic but made an adjustment late in the set. She lost just 2 games in the next 2 sets.
Both ladies have won 6 of 9 matches on hard courts in 2020. We have a good chance of this going to a deciding set. I give a slight edge to Pavlyuchenkova. Lay Kontaveit around 1.60 and remove some or all the liability at 2.30. Lay the set 1 winner.
Update: Pavlyuchenkova was ahead by a break of serve 3 times in the first set but was immediately broken back each time. The set went to a tie break which Kontaveit won with a single mini break. In set 2 Pavlyuchenkova again got the first break of serve but AGAIN was immediately broken straight back when serving for the set. Kontaveit won 7-6, 7-5.
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