Ons Jabeur vs Donna Vekić Prediction & Betting Tips - Cincinnati, USA

Prediction published on 17/08/2023, 07:21  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 17/08/2023 at 09:05 in Tennis Predictions

A quarter final spot in the Western & Southern Open is up for grabs here. Fifth seeded Ons Jabeur faces unseeded Donna Vekic in this outdoor hard court WTA 1000 tournament. The winner faces either second seeded Aryna Sabalenka or 12th seed Daria Kasatkina in the last eight. Jabeur was ranked fifth at the start of this tournament and remains in that position in the live rankings. The Tunisian is playing her first event since losing in the final at Wimbledon this year. This week has seen her beat Anhelina Kaliniina in three sets. The middle one was lost and the last two sets both went to a tie-break. Three of her last four matches have seen a tie-break played. On hard courts in 2023, Jabeur reached the semi-final in Adelaide but failed to get past the last 16 since January. Only one previous quarter final has been reached in this tournament, that was in 2020.

Donna Vekic has only won one of her four previous matches against her opponent. That was five years ago in Beijing and two subsequent meetings have both been lost, both on hard courts. The Croatian was ranked 22nd at the start of this WTA 1000 tournament. That's three places below the career high she achieved in 2019, One hard court title has been won this year, that was in Mexico five months ago. Since losing to eventual champion Marketa Vondrousova at Wimbledon, Vekic has played one clay court tournament (losing in the first round) and the hard court event held in Montreal and being beaten by Jasmine Paolini in her first match. It's gone better for her this week with  a win over Jennifer Brady in the first round. It was tougher in round two as she had to come from behind to beat Viktoria Azarenka. We go for Jabeur to get another win over Vekic.