Damien Kayat previews the WTA Tour’s Adelaide Open Ro16 matches as Danielle Collins faces Jil Teichmann and Beatriz Haddad Maia takes on Amanda Anisimova.
2023 WTA Tour
WTA 500
Adelaide International II
Memorial Drive Tennis Centre (Outdoor Hardcourt)
Selected Round of 16 Matches
11 January
Danielle Collins 4/10 | Jil Teichmann 19/10
Danielle Collins is currently something of an enigma. Ok, not quite in the Jelena Ostapenko bracket. But still. She won two titles in 2021 before making her biggest splash in this neck of the woods. She reached her maiden Grand Slam final at last year’s Aussie Open (losing to Ashleigh Barty in straight sets despite leading 5-1 in the 2nd).
But she failed to reach another final throughout the year, suffering a first-round exit at Wimbledon and a 2nd round exit at Roland Garros. A bout of endometriosis early in the season seemed to set her back considerably. Her game has always been based on massive groundstrokes and relentless aggression- high risk and high reward.
But like Denis Shapovalov, this could result in her looking unbeatable in one game and deeply flawed the next. She lost in the first-round last week in a three-set battle with Elena Rybakina. But she has looked more positive this time around, serving far better to beat former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova in straight sets. She seemed to mix aggression with more tactical play in a more fully rounded performance.
25-year-old Swiss Jil Teichman is a tough cookie who always takes some beating. She has shown steady improvement over the years and has evolved into a far more complete hard-court player.
Nominally a clay-court specialist, Teichman won both of her career titles on the sticky stuff in 2019. The lefty also made her maiden Grand Slam 4th round appearance at last year’s French Open. But she has certainly shown her capacity to mix it up on harder surfaces.
She reached her maiden WTA 1000 semi-final with a breakthrough performance at the 2021 WTA 1000 event held in Dubai. She went one better later that year, beating the likes of Osaka and Bencic en route to a final appearance at the WTA 1000 event held in Cincinnati.
This is her first tournament of the year, and she has forced her way through qualifying. She beat top-seeded qualifier Amanda Anisimova before a fairly comfy straight sets win against 2021 French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Verdict: Collins to win in three at 3/1
This will be their 3rd career meeting and the pair currently share the spoils 1-1. Collins had to come back from a set down to take down the Swiss at the 2021 Canadian Open. Teichman is a dogged fighter who will look to exploit Collins’ nearly obsessive aggression, hoping to frustrate the American into copious mistakes.
And this may earn her a set against the mercurial American. But Collins just looked too sharp against Pliskova to discount here. Her serve was far more methodical, and I see her winning in three.
Beatriz Haddad Maia | Amanda Anisimova *betting TBA
26-year-old Brazilian Beatrz Haddad Maia’s career looked seriously in the balance for a while. A series of debilitating injuries and a doping suspension stopped her promising career in its tracks. But she burst back to relevance with an absolutely brilliant 2022.
She won back-to-back grass-court titles in Nottingham and Birmingham. She then produced a herculean run in Toronto, becoming the first Brazilian woman to ever reach a WTA 1000 final, beating tennis demigoddess Iga Swiatek en route to the final. She is quite an unusual prospect. Standing at over six-foot, the lefty likes to be aggressive and win free points off her serve.
This often involves coming to the net (which is certainly a dying art in the woman’s game). There is actually more than a hint of Petra Kvitova about her. She also comes into this match in decent nick, winning both of her United Cup matches before trouncing Sorana Cirstea last time out.
21-year-old American Amanda Anisimova is one of those players at the tipping point. She looked primed for a massive breakthrough in 2019, winning her first WTA title and reaching the semi-finals of the French Open.
But the outbreak of Covid really brought her momentum to a halt and she struggled for a few years. But 2022 saw a real resurgence for Anisimova. She won her 2nd title in Melbourne (which augers well for her ability to perform well this week). And she also showed remarkable consistency at the Slams (compiling an 11-4 record for the year).
She just played remarkably consistent tennis throughput much of the campaign, employing the ultra-aggressive approach that has become the de facto style in modern tennis. But a broken toe scuppered her chances of making an impression during the US Open series.
And she has struggled to rebound from that poor end to the year, losing convincingly to Kudermetova last week. And she is only made it through qualifying this week as a lucky loser. Still, she looked impressive in taking down the big-serving Samsonova.
Verdict: Anisimova to win in three sets
Anisimova holds a 2-0 head-to-head record against the Brazilian. This included straight sets win in Doha last year. I feel like Anisimova could use that Samsonova victory as a springboard to success. She hits the ball flat and should suit these Aussie surfaces perfectly. But it will be tight as Haddad Maia has the game to dominate on serve.
