The 2019 WTA Tour continues in Morocco with the Rabat Grand Prix taking place on Tuesday 30 April 2019. Check out our full betting preview below for our selected round of 32 fixtures.
2019 WTA Tour | WTA International
Rabat Grand Prix (Morocco Open)
Selected Round of 32 Matches – 30 April 2019
Kirsten Flipkens (33/10)
vs Elise Mertens (2/11)
An all Belgium affair should make for an entertaining opening round tie in the only WTA event held in Africa. Elise Mertens is the very definition of an enigmatic talent. She took the tennis world by surprise with that semi-final run at last year’s Aussie Open. She then went on to win this event, highlighting her all-court abilities. But the remainder of the season was largely uninspiring for the Belgian youngster. And her 2019 campaign has been similarly schizophrenic. It is literally awash with opening round defeats. But then slap-bang in the middle of that mediocrity, you have a wonderful win in Qatar. This type of unpredictability makes the art of prediction more speculative than one would wish. But perhaps a return to the sight of last year’s triumph will help reinstall some consistency in Mertens’ game.
Kirsten Flipkens is a player who has never quite fulfilled the promise of her junior career. She claimed both the Wimbledon and US Open junior crowns in 2003. But the 33-year-old Flipkens has found consistent success on the tour tough to come by. She is more comfortable on the faster surfaces, with grass being her favourite. In fact, she managed to reach the semi-finals of Wimbledon back in 2013. She also reached the Rosmalen final last season. Though short of stature, Flipkens is an exponent of the antiquated art of serve and volley. This can prove disruptive to players generally exposed to militant baseliners. But her form this year has been largely underwhelming – a quarter-final as recently as Monterrey will offer some encouragement to her.
I was slightly surprised to discover that this will be the first meeting between these two fellow Belgians. I’m certain that they would have trained together at some point or another. They both share similar immediate form. Flipkens has won four of her last ten while Mertens has won five. So 33/10 looks rather enticing for Flipkens when you consider the similarity of their recent performances.
Natalie Vikhlyantseva (9/10)
vs Kristyna Pliskova (9/10)
It can’t be the easiest thing to be the twin of a far superior player in your own profession. Kristyna Pliskova has always been some way behind her sister Karoline Pliskova, though their games are based on similar tropes. Kristyna Pliskova actually currently holds the world record for the most aces in a match on tour: she served 31 against Monica Puig at the 2017 Australian Open. While her form over the past year or so has been fairly abject – she has turned into something of a double’s specialist – her one WTA title actually came on clay. She won the 2017 Prague Open. She is also coming off of a semi-final showing on the clay courts of Lugano and the Samsung Open.
The 22-year-old Russian Natalie Vikhlyantseva is actually physically similar to Pliskova. She is tall and gangly with a penchant for the grass courts: she reached the final of the Rosmalen event in 2017. She has thee ITF clay-court finals on her resume, which indicates that there is some aptitude for this surface here. Her form has been nothing short of dreadful since she reached the final of an ITF event in France towards the end of last year. She did well to reach the main draw and final 32 of Indian Wells, but it’s really hard to recommend Vikhlyantseva with any confidence.
These two have met once before, with Pliskova winning in Madrid last year. Kristyna Pliskova is a far more accomplished player and is entering this event with that Samsung Open form in mind. I just can’t see any reason to back the Russian at the same price.
Written by Damien Kayat for Hollywoodbets.
