Third round
Sasnovich (2.24) v Putintseva (1.79)
Due to start at 4 pm
Putintseva has won both their previous matches. They last met in Sydney in January 2016. She won on a hard court in 2 easy sets. Their other match was on clay in 2014.
Their overall win percentages are very even in the last 12 months and also in 2020. Putintseva has better hard court results.
Sasnovich struggled in the opening set in the first round match with Di Lorenzo but started her second round match at 100mph. She was underdog against Vondrousova but lost just 3 games. She reached the second round last year. The last time she won 2 main draw matches on a hard court in the same week was at the 2019 Australian Open. She has held 90% of her service games.
Putintseva has been the strong favourite in both her matches. She has lost a total of 10 games and 5 of those were breaks of serve. She reached the third round in Doha in February and the third round at the Australian Open. She made the third round at last year’s US Open.
I can see this being very tight. There’s a good chance that it goes to 3 sets. We have some value on Sasnovich and if she can serve as well as she did in the last round she has a great chance. Lay Putintseva if she breaks first and remove the liability when Sasnovich breaks back. Lay the set 1 winner.
Update: Sasnovich made the quicker start and took a 4-0 lead. Putintseva got one of the breaks back but Sasnovich broke again to take the set. In set 2 Sasnovich was broken first but immediately broke back. Putintseva broke her another 2 times to level the match. In set 3 Sasnovich held serve in the opening game but Putintseva won the next 6 games.
Putintseva won 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
