Mirra Andreeva has been utterly spectacular so far this week, but she needs a bit more to take down Elena Rybakina at the 2023 China Open.
It's really hard to pinpoint who has been more impressive in Beijing so far. Andreeva secured the main draw of the China Open by winning two qualifying matches and then followed that up with a win over Barbora Krejcikova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Rybakina was no less impressive with her two wins, which were both brutal in the sense of how badly she beat her opponent. She's the favourite for this one, but will she run into any kind of trouble against the rising star? Let's see.
Head-to-head:
As Andreeva only started to play on the WTA Tour this year, the teenager has never faced Elena Rybakina before. She's faced Grand Slam champions before and beat them. Now, the Russian player will want to record also a Top 5 win.
Prediction:
First of all, the match will be on Rybakina's racquet. There are only a few players who generally can claim to be the players deciding a matchup with Rybakina, and Andreeva is not one of them. Rybakina will impose her will with the serve and then hit like a truck.
The youngster will see plenty of quick balls flying towards and will need to avoid sending short balls, which will be punished severely. The main strength of her tennis is the ability to put her opponent in a tricky situation, which is a viable tactic against Rybakina.
She can be quite streaky with her baseline shots although she's controlling it far better this year compared to last year. If the youngster gets a bad serving day from Rybakina then anything can happen. Still, I don't think that will happen. I do think Rybakina end her run.
Prediction: Rybakina to win in two sets.
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