Aleksandra Krunic vs Paula Badosa Gibert Tennis Pick
Krunic is 4-0 against Spaniards in 2018, having beaten two such opponents this week. The Serb is far more experienced and should be able to overwhelm the potentially fatigued qualifier in their first meeting, who has played 14 sets of tennis on clay in the last five days.
Aleksandra Krunic News
Aleksandra Krunic rolls over Sorribes Tormo (6-3 6-1) and Arruabarrena (6-2 6-7 6-2), to enter her second Rabat quarterfinal. In 2016, she reached the last eight of Rabat as a debutante, defeating Sevastova and Makarova (l. to Kiwi qualifier Erakovic).
The Serb started the year with two promising wins over Carina Witthoeft and Garbine Muguruza (forced a decider from 7-6 5-2 down, won by retirement) at Brisbane. However, she could only collect three wins in the next seven tournaments.
Krunic has found herself at the quarterfinal stage of a clay WTA tournament four times in the past, including twice last year (Bogota and Bastad). However, they have all ended in adverse results.
Krunic did win a clay WTA $125k tournament at Bol (Croatia) in June 2017, defeating Sorribes Tormo, Haddad Maia, and Cadantu. Later in the year, she reached her first WTA final at Guangzhou (l. to Shuai Zhang). These results helped the Serb to post her best year-end rank of #55.
Paula Badosa Gibert News
Paula Badosa Gibert reached her first WTA quarterfinal by defeating last week’s Istanbul runner-up Polona Hercog from a set deficit. In this two hour and 16-minute encounter, Badosa Gibert dispatched 28 winners while creating a dozen break opportunities (7/12).
It was the 20-year-old Spaniard’s fifth top 100 win, the earlier of which came at 2015 Miami Open (def. #89 Cetkovska), a tournament where she has been given three wildcards (2015-17) and has reached its third round on her WTA main draw debut (l. to Karolina Pliskova).
Debuting at Rabat as her first WTA tournament of the season, #212 Badosa Gibert started from the qualifying rounds, defeating #243 Basak Eraydin, #141 Magdalena Frech, #109 Arantxa Rus, before taking on fellow qualifier Fiona Ferro in the main draw.
The winner of 2015 Junior French Open, Badosa Gibert will crack a new career-high rank of at least #180, up from her previous best rank of #193.
Tennis Pick: Aleksandra Krunic
Odds: 1.33
