Ons Jabeur vs Zhuoxuan Bai Prediction & Betting Tips - Wimbledon Qualification, England

Prediction published on 07/07/2023, 04:35  by Devesh Jaganath | Modified on 07/07/2023 at 05:25 in Tennis Predictions

World number six Ons Jabeur will take on 149th-ranked Zhuoxuan Bai in the second round of the 2023 Wimbledon on Friday. The winner of this match will face either Bianca Andreescu or Anhelina Kalinina in the next round. Last year's runner-up in this competition, Jabeur had an average start to the grass swing this year after suffering a first-round exit in Berlin against qualifier Jule Niemeier. She went on to Eastbourne thereafter and won her first match but lost to Camila Giorgi in round two. However, here at Wimbledon, she seems to have turned it up a notch as she breezed past Magdalena Frech in the first round in straight sets. Jabeur broke Frech twice in either set while only dropping her own serve once. With that win, her record now reads as 17-9 for the season. The Tunisian also has an excellent record on the grass over the last two years, recording 11-1 last season and 10-2 in 2021. She will be heavily fancied to progress in this one. 

Meanwhile, this is Bai’s first-ever Grand Slam appearance, and she did very well to get through the qualifiers to make the main draw. The Chinese has had a solid season on the ITF circuit, reaching as many as four finals while managing to win two of them. She began the year ranked north of 300th in the world but has more than halved her ranking coming into this tournament. Bai was knocked out in the first round of her first grasscourt tournament of the year last month but looked much better in the first round of this competition. She faced Ysaline Bonaventure in her opening match and was down 4-1 in the first set, but that’s when she seemed to move up a gear and powered home in the second set, losing just one game. Bai is now 32-13 for the year and 6-2 on the grass. This is her first year taking on the grass swing, and while she has looked good up to this point, overcoming Jabeur will be a completely different type of assignment.