Elena Rybakina vs Jelena Ostapenko Prediction & Betting Tips - Cincinnati, USA

Prediction published on 16/08/2023, 04:12  by Kennedy Kechula | Modified on 16/08/2023 at 18:40 in Tennis Predictions

Fourth seed Elena Rybakina and the unseeded Jelena Ostapenko will battle each other on Thursday at the 2023 Cincinnati Open. Elena Rybakina begins her Cincinnati campaign after her semifinal finish at the Canadian Open. A quarterfinalist in 2022, Rybakina will be confident of reaching at the very least the semifinals here. The Kazakh has been in dominant form this season and has won 40 of the 50 matches she has played. The majority of those victories, 24, have come in 30 outings on hard court. The 24-year-old, who is currently ranked fourth in the WTA, has won two titles so far. She has also finished as runner-up a further two times. Before this year, Rybakina had lost her first two encounters with Ostapenko but has since leveled out the series.

Jelena Ostapenko defeated Karolina Pliskova to begin her seventh appearance in Cincinnati. The Latvian has struggled with her form in recent outings as she has lost three times in her last five matches. But as she has defeated Rybakina twice before and has been decent in 2023, she will fancy her chances of winning here. The former French Open champion has compiled a 28-15 record thus far with 13 of those 28 wins coming on hard court. The highlight of her campaign however came on grass in Birmingham where she emerged champion. Ostapenko has never advanced past the third round in Cincinnati and was last season eliminated in this very round. A former world number five, Ostapenko is currently ranked 20th in the WTA. The winner of this second-round match will play either Jasmine Paolini or Cristina Bucsa, both qualifiers, in the third round.