The 13th-ranked Kristina Mladenovic will be looking to regain some confidence back. She didn’t have a good run at the grass courts, as she failed to make it out of the third round four consecutive times.
Tomorrow’s first-round matchup should be a “safe” match for the redemption-seeking Mladenovic, who has already beaten Tatjana Maria before. They previously met at the opening round of the Charleston Open last year, with the former winning comfortably, 6-3, 6-4.
Mladenovic is 37-15 overall this year and 16-7 on hard courts. We should see her pick up the pace again, since she was doing well prior to the minor slump in the grass-held events. She had four finals appearances, two each on clay and hard surfaces.
Women’s no. 62 Tatjana Maria will be coming off an appearance at the Bucharest Open. She cruised against the first two opponents, but got stuffed by no. 31 Carla Suarez Navarro in the third round, including getting shutout in the opening set (6-0, 6-3).
For a woman in her ranking, Maria is having a standard season. She’s doing well versus B-level competition (24-10), but has been under .500 in the main draws (7-10). Further, she’s 9-8 overall on hard courts. Maria’s highlights for the season is appearing in a string of ITF title games weeks back, where she won two of four.
Considering the previous loss to Mladenovic and the inability to play like a respectable contender opposite first and/or second-tier opponents, we could very well see Maria get bounced tomorrow night.
