5th seed Marta Kostyuk locks horns with Liang En-shuo of Taiwan in the round of 32 of the Thailand Open on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old got off to a good start in 2023 as she made it to the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International 1. She progressed from the qualifiers and even defeated Elena Rybakina in the campaign. Adelaide International 2 wasn’t as memorable as she lost her first qualifying match against Shelby Rogers.
Kostyuk reached the third round of the Australian Open for the third time in her career. She defeated Amanda Anisimova and Olivia Gadecki before losing to Jessica Pegula in the third round. The Ukrainian youngster is one of the strongest contenders to win in Thailand.
The 22-year-old has made it to the main draw after winning qualifying matches against Kathinka von Deichmann and Ipek Oz.
Earlier this month, En-shuo played in a couple of tournaments on the ITF circuit in Thailand. She had a 1-2 win-loss record in the tournaments. After these events, she traveled to India and played in two more tournaments on the ITF circuit. In these tournaments, she once again had a 1-2 win-loss record. En-shuo will enter the match as the underdog and will have to play her A-game to give Kostyuk a run for her money.
Marta Kostyuk and Liang En-shuo have never faced each other at the senior level. Therefore, the head-to-head scoreline stands at 0-0. However, they did face each other once at the 2017 Australian Open Juniors. Kostyuk won the match in straight sets.
Prediction: Marta Kostyuk to win in straight sets.
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