Elena Rybakina
The talented Elena Rybakina will look to overcome the setback she suffered at the Slovenia Open final when she takes on Liudmila Samsonova in the first round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open 2022.
The 23-year-old made it to the finals in Adelaide before losing to Ashleigh Barty in straight sets. She reached the quarter-final stage at the Indian Wells Masters and this was the only tournament where the youngster reached the last-8 stage prior to Wimbledon. Rybakina’s Wimbledon campaign is well-documented. She overcame the odds and won the tournament having dropped just a couple of sets throughout the competition.
Rybakina failed to replicate her Wimbledon performance in the next few tournaments. She returned to form at the recently-concluded Slovenia Open and reached the final without breaking too much of a sweat. In the final, she lost to Katerina Siniakovain a closely-contested match.
The world No. 30 didn’t have a great time in the first half of the season. She reached the quarterfinals in Adelaide before facing first-round exits in a number of tournaments that followed. Samsonova managed to reach the semifinals of the Stuttgart Open where she lost to eventual champion Iga Swiatek. She once again struggled for consistency following the decent showing in Stuttgart.
Samsonova struck gold at the Citi Open as she managed to defeat Kaia Kanepi in the final to win her second WTA title. This was just the beginning as she followed it up with another win in the Tennis in the Land tournament. At the US Open, she was ousted in the round of 16.
Samsonova has a 1-0 lead over Rybakina in the head-to-head scoreline.
Prediction: Elena Rybakina to win in three sets.
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