Paula Badosa vs Marta Kostyuk Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Rome

Prediction published on 14/05/2023, 04:19  by Kennedy Kechula | Modified on 14/05/2023 at 09:26 in Tennis Predictions

World number 35 Paula Badosa and 32nd seed Marta Kostyuk meet in the third round of the Italian Open. The winner of this outdoor clay court match will face unseeded Karolina Muchova  in the fourth round. Badosa has won both previous meetings with Kostyuk which were both at the Australian Open in 2019 and 2022. Now they meet for the first time on clay and Badosa will be confident of making it three wins against Kostyuk and progressing past this round for the first time in what is her second appearance. Despite winning her opening two rounds in Rome, Badosa has lost 30 ranking points this week which has seen her drop three places down in the live ranking to number 38. The former world number two has been superb once again on clay where nine of her 15 wins have come. Her highlight of the season however came on hard court when she made it through to the semifinals in Adelaide at the start of the year.

Marta Kostyuk’s best performance of the season came at the inaugural ATX Open in Austin where she won the trophy to secure her first WTA career title. This was in March and since then she hasn’t come close to challenging for another title but will hope her dominant start in Rome allows her to advance deeper in the competition. The Ukrainian defeated the unseeded Claire Liu in straight sets of 6-0, 6-4 and took one hour and 24 minutes to get the job done. This saw her leapfrog Badosa in the live ranking by moving up three places to number 37 after picking up 35 ranking points. Though she hasn’t had the best of starts on clay with two wins and two losses out of the four matches she has played, Kostyuk will be confident of prolonging her stay in Rome as she has set a new personal record already by advancing to the third round.