Shuai Zhang vs Jelena Ostapenko Tennis Prediction
This will be Ostapenko’s first meeting with Zhang. However, she has faced five different Chinese opponents in her tour-level career, winning four of those encounters (d. #72 Zheng, #126 Zhu, #25 Peng and #100 Duan), losing only to #76 Qiang Wang.
Jelena Ostapenko News
Jelena Ostapenko will begin her third Internazionali BNL d’Italia campaign as the fifth seed, her highest seeding at a Premier 5 event. Last year, she had to play the qualifying rounds (l. Muguruza) but went on to win the French Open in the following fortnight.
Ostapenko’s best result at a Premier 5 tournament is a runner-up finish at 2016 Doha (l. Suarez Navarro). She started her European swing with a quarterfinal appearance at Stuttgart (l. to eventual champion Pliskova) and a first-round exit at Madrid (l. Begu).
The Latvian #1 reached her first final of the season at Miami, losing to another reigning slam champion Stephens. In Miami, she defeated #9 Kvitova and #4 Svitolina to register multiple top 10 wins in the same tournament for the first time in her career.
Shuai Zhang News
Shuai Zhang knocked out #33 Mihaela Buzarnescu in the first round (6-3 7-6) to register her third top 50 win of the season, having previously defeated #13 Stephens (Australian Open) and #21 Osaka (Madrid).
Zhang has been to the quarterfinals of Rome in 2014, defeating #6 Kvitova en route as her career’s second top 10 win. The world #27 has a 5-17 career record against top 10 opponents, with the latest such win coming at 2017 Doha (d. #7 Muguruza).
Earlier this month, the Chinese #1 registered her first semifinal in a tour-level clay tournament at Prague Open. But, the two-time Guangzhou winner’s bid for her first WTA final outside China was denied by the eventual champion Kvitova.This will be Ostapenko’s first meeting with Zhang. However, she has faced five different Chinese opponents in her tour-level career, winning four of those encounters (d. #72 Zheng, #126 Zhu, #25 Peng and #100 Duan), losing only to #76 Qiang Wang.
Tennis Prediction: Jelena Ostapenko
Odds: 1.53
