Viktoria Kuzmova vs Rebecca Peterson

Viktoria Kuzmova will make her main draw debut at Wimbledon after enjoying a breakthrough season in 2018. Last year, she fell to Canada’s Bianca Andreescu in the final qualifying round. However this fortnight, the 20-year-old is entering the slam as the Slovakian #3 and world #68.
Kuzmova, who was ranked #138 at the start of this year, has won titles at $60k Shenzhen (d. Kalinskaya) and $100k Trvana (d. Cepede Royg), reached the semifinals of two WTA tournaments (Budapest and ‘s-Hertogenbosch), and won her first slam main draw match at French Open (d. Schiavone).
Rebecca Peterson is also enjoying a similar breakthrough season, having debuted into top 100 and rising as high as #76. The Swede made her first WTA semifinal at Acapulco, lifted her biggest title at $100k Cagnes-Sur-Mer, and won a slam main draw match for the first time at Paris (d. Hsieh).
The 22-year-old Peterson is coming into Wimbledon after winning her first tour-level main draw match on grass, defeating world #42 Danielle Collins at Mallorca last month (l. Tomljanovic). Her previous two Wimbledon appearances ended in the qualifying rounds, losing to Tatjana Maria in 2016 and Erakovic in 2017.
This will be the pair’s first encounter. This match, between two players who have gone through similar trajectory at least in the first-half of this season, is expected to be a close one. Although, Kuzmova has played and won against more top 100 players in 2018 (9-10) than the Swede (6-6).

Tennis Picks: Viktoria Kuzmova
Odds: 1.73