13th seed Danielle Collins locks horns with 22nd seed Elena Rybakina in the third round of the 2023 Australian Open on Friday.

Elena Rybakina

The Kazakhstani No. 1 has already defeated Collins once this year. She began the year by playing at the Adelaide International 1. In the first round, she defeated fifth seed Danielle Collins after dropping the first set. Rybakina’s journey eventually ended in the second round following a loss to Marta Kostyuk. In the Adelaide International 2, Rybakina lost in the first round to Petra Kvitova in straight sets.

Rybakina began her Australian Open campaign with a solid performance against Elisabetta Cocciaretto. However, this was nowhere near Rybakina’s best performance. In the second round, the 23-year-old put on a much better display to edge past Kaja Juvan in straight sets 6-2, 6-1. Another win will see Rybakina reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open for the first time in her career.

Danielle Collins

Like Rybakina, Collins also played both tournaments in Adelaide. After being ousted in the first round at the Adelaide International 1, Collins went on to reach the quarterfinals at the Adelaide International 2. She defeated Karolina Pliskova and Jil Teichmann before losing to Veronika Kudermetova.

In the Australian Open so far, Collins has looked far from her best and won both her matches in three sets after showing a lot of grit and determination. In the first round, she defeated Anna Kalinskaya while in the second round, she came back from a set down to defeat Karolina Muchova.

Head-to-Head and Prediction

The head-to-head scoreline is evenly poised at 1-1. Rybakina won their most recent encounter at the Adelaide International 1 in three sets.

Prediction: Elena Rybakina to win in three sets.

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