Kateryna Kozlova vs. Mona Barthel Preview
Where: Bastad Tennis Stadium, Bastad, Sweden
When: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 9:30 AM ET
Line: Kateryna Kozlova (+220) vs. Mona Barthel (-300) – view all Ericsson Open lines
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Betting on Kateryna Kozlova (+190)
Kozlova powered past her first-round test, as she completed a 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) come-from behind victory over Mirjam Bjorklund. It was how it’s supposed to turn out, as Kozlova entered the match as the heavy favorite.
She’s not the chalk this time around, however. The 23-yeard-old Kozlova, ranked 127th by the WTA will be squaring off with the more experienced and higher ranked Barthel, who is no. 49 in the rankings. Having said that, don’t expect the Ukrainian to be fazed. After all, she’s defeated Barthel before. Kozlova took down Barthel in a hard-surface quarterfinals match in Doha two years ago, 6-2, 6-2.
In that match, Kozlova’s service game was on point, putting in 77 percent of his first serves and winning 72 percent of his first serve points. That remained to be the case against Bjorklund, as Kozlova had 69 percent of his first serves in to go with a 58 percent points won off of them.
Betting on Mona Barthel (-350)
Like Kozlova, Barthel didn’t have it easy in the first round, as she rallied from a one-set deficit to nail a hard-earned 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) victory over ninth-seed Johanna Larsson. With the win, the German didn’t just book a spot in the second round but also a shot at avenging her aforementioned loss to Kozlova in 2015.
Barthel must be locked in on abusing Kozlova’s seemingly poor return game. Kozlova has only 20 percent return games won so far this year. Barthel could also take advantage of a likely fatigued Kozlova, who had to go through the qualifiers. Barthel has fresher legs, as she didn’t have to play in one.
Barthel has a 14-4 overall record on clay court matches this 2017.
Writer’s Prediction
Barthel (-350) sends Kozlova crashing out of the tournament.
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