21-year-old Anett Kontaveit is on the verge of winning her first-ever WTA Tour title this weekend in the final round of the 2017 Ricoh Open against fellow up-and-comer, Natalia Vikhlyantseva.
Kontaveit is having quite a 2017 campaign, securing wins over some of the Tour’s biggest names such as World No. 2 Angelique Kerber at the Rome Masters and former French Open Champion, Garbine Muguruza, at Stuttgart. While those victories have come on clay, her form on grass thus far has been very encouraging indeed.
The verdant turf if where Kontaveit has found the greatest success. Counting tournaments outside of the WTA’s main draw, the Estonian boasts a professional record of 34-10 on grass leading up to this Sunday’s final. With her massive upsets and track record on this week’s surface, Kontaveit is well-deserving of being the odds-on favorite to win her maiden WTA Tour title.
Russia’s Natalia Vikhlyantseva came out of nowhere at s-Hertogenbosch and will look to win her first-ever title as well in her debut at a final round of a WTA Tour event.
While Vikhlyantseva’s surge in The Netherlands is a pleseant surprise, she doesn’t have much experience on grass prior to this week’s tournament – a 3-1 lifetime record on the turf, with two of the three wins coming outside of the WTA’s main draw. Most of the Volgograd native’s success have come on clay, having a combined record of 56-26 in non-premier tournaments between 2014 and 2016.
This year, however, Vikhlyantseva hasn’t had as much success on clay, going 1-4 with three first-round exits and missing out on two other qualifiers in the WTA’s main draw. She hasn’t faced Kontaveit head-to-head yet and has no legitimate victory over a top-10 opponent under her belt either to inspire more confidence.
Having said that, look for the more experienced Kontaveit to delay Vikhlyantseva’s coming out party this Sunday.
Writer’s Prediction
Kontaveit (-340) outduels Vikhlyantseva in three sets.
