Putintseva has won all 3 of their matches so far. The last one was in August last season. She won in straight sets on a hard court. Nara retired in that match. Their other 2 matches went to 3 sets.
Nara started the year a little slowly but she was playing ok. She reached the 3rd round at Indian Wells as a qualifier. She retired from her match last week.
Putintseva has had a good start to the season and has improved her ranking by 21 places.
I see them as being fairly evenly matched but Nara’s retirement puts doubt on how healthy she is.
I will back Putintseva if she is broken first.
