Alycia Parks vs Maryna Zanevska Prediction & Betting Tips - Lyon, France, Qualifying

Prediction published on 03/02/2023, 15:34  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 04/02/2023 at 01:00 in Tennis Predictions

As usual a women's singles tournament has plenty of upsets and the Lyon Open has been no exception. We're guaranteed an unseeded player in Sunday's final as Alycia Parks faces Maryna Zanevska in the bottom half semi-final. The winner will face either unseeded Camila Osorio or the top seed Caroline Garcia. Parks began this week ranked 79th in the world but the American is up to 72nd in the live rankings and can climb another ten places if reaching the final. Her career-high ranking is 75th so this has been a massive week for the 22-year-old. Known for her fast serve, Parks has never won a main draw match in a Grand Slam and lost in the second qualifying round of the recent Australian Open to the then world number 175 Sara Bejlek. Last December saw her win two Challenger Tour tournaments and that included a win over Zhang Shuai who was the second seed in this event. This week the American has had knocked out two seeds, coming from behind to beat Petra Martic (seeded fourth) and in her quarter final, the seventh seed Danka Kovinic.

Maryna Zanesvka is the other surprise semi-finalist and started this week ranked 93rd but is up to 77th in the live rankings and will make it to 69th if beating Parks. That'd still be seven places below her career-high ranking of 62nd achieved last May. This is her third tournament of the year. The other was the Hobart International where Zanesvki got to the last 16 and beat Elise Mertens who was ranked 27th that week before losing to Sofia Kenin. The Australian Open saw her lose in round one to ninth seeded Veronkia Kudermetova, who also beat her in last year's US Open. Her only WTA Tour singles title was won in Poland two years ago but that was on clay rather than a hard court. This week has seen her beat two seeds with wins over Zhang Shuai (seeded second) and the fifth seeded Anastasia Potapova after losing the first set. She recovered well though and Potapova only won three games in the next two sets. This looks like being a tight semi-final and Zanesvki can get the win.