Croatia’s Donna Vekic will take on Liudmila Samsonova in the third round of the Italian Open

Donna Vekic made a good start to the season with two consecutive quarter-final appearances at the Australian Open and the Linz Open before going on to win the Monterrey Open.

However, her form hasn’t been the same recently and she is going through a rough patch. The 21st seed has come to Rome at the back of a first-round exit from the Madrid Open, which is a pretty poor result by her standards. There are high expectations from Vekic in Italy and it remains to be seen if she can carve out the desired results.

Vekic began her campaign with a hard-fought win against Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the Round of 64. She displayed tremendous grit to come back from a set down to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. The No.21 seed will face a tough challenge in her upcoming match against Samsonova but she certainly has the ability to pull off an upset.

Liudmila Samsonova’s form coming into the match

Samsonova has had a pretty poor season so far by her standards. Her sole noteworthy performance this year came at the Abu Dhabi Open, where she finished runners-up. Samsonova has made a good start in Rome with a solid 6-3, 6-3 victory against Anett Kontaveit and will be aiming to continue her good run of form. It remains to be seen if the 16th seed can go all the way and clinch her first singles title of the season.

Details:

Date – Sunday, 14th May

Court Type – Clay outdoor surface

Telecast – Tennis Channel

Start Time – To be Announced

Location – Foro Italico

Match details – Round of 32 match

Head to Head and Predictions

Vekic and Samsonova have played each other two times before on the WTA Tour. Both the matches have been closely fought but Vekic has the upper hand and leads 2-0 on head to head. Samsonova has failed to win a single set against the Croatian over the previous two encounters. However, it’s a difficult match to call as both players are very close in terms of rankings and the performance on that particular day is likely to make a difference. We are predicting an intense encounter with Donna Vekic eventually coming out on top in three sets.

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