The ecotrans Ladies Open, the first WTA 500 event of the grass-court season continues as Jessica Pegula faces Donna Vekic and Elena Rybakina goes up against Veronika Kudermetova. Damien Kayat previews the action.
2024 WTA Tour – WTA 500
Ecotrans Ladies Open
Am Rothenbaum Rot-Weiss Tennis Club
Selected Round of 16 matches – 20 June
Jessica Pegula 61/100 | Donna Vekic 5/4
This has the potential to be a cracking round of 16 tie. fourth seed Jessica Pegula has been one of the tour’s most consistent players over the last few seasons (Grand Slams aside).
The hard-working American has become a fixture in the latter stages of WTA events but she hasn’t really been able to translate that into meaningful grass-court success.
Sure, she reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last season. But she is yet to reach a tour-level grass-court final in her career. It will also be interesting to see how Pegula’s body copes with this test.
The American has suffered a succession of injures that have prevented her from reaching her optimal level this season. This led her to withdraw from the bulk of this year’s clay-court campaign.
She returned to action in last week’s Libema Open, going down to an inspired Krunic in three sets. The combination of a relatively poor grass-court record and recent injury issues makes her prime upset fodder.
The 27-year-old Donna Vekic is a really dangerous dark horse pick this week. She hasn’t been in the greatest form of late, only qualifying for this event via a wildcard.
She had a few decent showings towards the beginning of the season, reaching the semis in Linz and the quarter-finals in San Diego. But her form flatlined, only to be resurrected by a surprise third-round run at the French Open.
She beat Marta Kostyuk in straight sets in Paris and that performance bodes well going forward. Sure, she was upset by Greet Minnen in last week’s Rosmalen event.
But she is a past grass-court specialist who has what it takes to compete with anyone on these surfaces. She has reached four grass-court finals in her career, finishing runner-up to two-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova in last year’s final.
Vekic is almost ideally suited to grass. She has an excellent serve that can generate plenty of cheap points and she likes to play incisive, first-strike tennis. I just wish she would come to the net a little more often. Still, she will always stand a fighting chance on these slick surfaces.
The Verdict: Vekic to win in three 44/10
Pegula won their only previous meeting, taking down Vekic in straight sets at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. But Pegula is slightly wounded at present and she has never really moved that comfortably on grass.
Vekic is a seasoned grass-court operator who knows how to negotiate these Wimbledon lead-in events. I think she could take down an undercooked Pegula in three.
Elena Rybakina 1/5 | Veronika Kudermetova 34/10
I have a feeling that Rybakina is going to dominate this year’s grass-court swing. She has been quite vocal in her criticism of the tour this season, lambasting the insane WTA 1000 schedule.
This is a portion of the season where players dictate their own schedules and Rybakina will probably only play this event ahead of Wimbledon (which she obviously won back in 2022).
Rybakina has enjoyed a spectacular season that has been somewhat overshadowed by the brilliance of Swiatek. She is 34-6 this year, winning three titles in the process.
She hasn’t reached a grass-court final since that Wimbledon triumph back in 2022 but she did reach the quarter-finals last year. This will be her first outing since that disappointing French Open quarter-final defeat to Paolini.
I just think that the big-serving Kazakh will be refreshed and rearing to go this week. She has an ultra-aggressive style that is tailor-made for grass-court domination.
Next up for Rybakina will be big-serving Russian Veronika Kudermetova. A former top 10 player, Kudermetova has endured a pretty dismal 2024 campaign.
She has been eliminated in the early stages of pretty much every event (bar a decent quarter-final run at the Charleston Open). She has just turned into an unforced error machine, leaning too heavily on that serve to bail her out of trouble.
But she did enjoy a cracking grass-court campaign last season, reaching the final of the Libema Open and the quarter-finals of this event. These surfaces help simplify the task for her, allowing her to keep points short and sweet.
She has been in grinding mode this week, coming through qualifying before a come-from-behind win against Libema Open champion Russian Samsonova.
The Verdict: Rybakina to win in straight sets 6/10
Rybakina has dominated this rivalry, leading the Russian 4-0 in their previous meetings. Having said that, she only squeaked by the Russian when they met in Stuttgart a few months back.
But this should be an easy assignment for the Kazakh. She is the evolved version of Kudermetova and I can’t see the Russian breaking her serve. I might be tempted to go for under 20.5 games at 21/20.
