Pavlyuchenkova A. vs Garbine Muguruza Tennis Prediction

The #2 seed Muguruza has won all her previous three meetings with Pavlyuchenkova, the latest one coming at 2016 Cincinnati (7-6 6-1). Although it will be their first encounter on clay, the former French Open champion is the big favorite going into this match.

Garbine Muguruza News

Garbine Muguruza joins the list of 2018 title winners by claiming the Monterrey Open, earlier this month. Playing as the top seed at the Mexican event, she stormed into the final without dropping a set, where she was put to the tough test by Timea Babos.
This title follows Muguruza’s disappointments in March. While she lost to #100 Vickery at Indian Wells (worst loss since 2016 Wimbledon), she could not move beyond the fourth round of Miami, despite receiving a bye and a walkover (l. to Stephens).
This weekend, the Spaniard joined her Fed Cup team at Murcia (Spain) to play her first clay matches of the season. She defeated #86 Cepede Royg and #334 Montserrat Gonzalez (dropped a set) of Paraguay to maintain Spain’s place in the World Group II.
Muguruza has appeared at Stuttgart main draw three times in the past, the best result being a quarterfinal in 2016 (l. to Kvitova). However last year, she suffered an opening round loss to Estonia’s Kontaveit.

Pavlyuchenkova A. News

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova got the better of Madison Keys after battling with the American in the two hours, 45 minutes first round match, 7-6 5-7 6-4. This marks the Russian’s third WTA win of 2018, first top 20 (1-2).
This is Pavlyuchenkova’s sixth appearance at Stuttgart, and advancing to the round of 16 is his best result in this event (three previous occasions are 2011, 2013-14). She will now seek to advance into her career’s first clay Premier quarterfinal.
Pavlyuchenkova, whose 2018 season is currently in a slump, posted her best season last year, with a career-high year-end rank of #15. For the first time in her career, she had won three WTA titles in a season, Monterrey, Rabat (clay) and Hong Kong.
Four out of six tour-level losses Pavlyuchenkova suffered this season has come against current or former top 10 players, Makarova (St. Petersburg), Cibulkova (Doha), Konta (Dubai) and Kerber (Miami).

Tennis Prediction: Garbine Muguruza
Odds: 1.36