MathiasSvenson

Kristyna Pliskova has one of the biggest serve on the tour. Not that effective than Serena, Keys or her twin sister Karolina, but more than enough to cause many problems for her first opponent, Kuzmova. Actually, clay was the worst surface for Kristyna, but since last year she has been better and better. Due to the later date for the Garros, the surface (probably) is going to be faster this year and it is also a feature what we need to measure. So, the Czech has an impressive serve and Kuzmova will struggle against it. The Slovakian played just one match on clay since the restart and she lost clearly against the Belgian Van Uytvanck. She made just one break against Van Uytvanck and her game won't be enough against Pliskova either.

I think Rybakina should win this without any problem. She has been very solid server so far in the tournament and had clear wins as well. Her next opponent will be the chinese Shuai Zhang. She cannot play during the lockdown and you can see its result on her play. She came through the qualification, but had much easier opponents than the kazakh. The chinese Zhang can be really weak on the return side and therefore my bet is against the breaks. 7,5 is too high, even they are playing on clay surface. It should be a clear win for Rybakina and without many breaks.

Both Simona Halep and Putintseva are all-rounder players, but they are extremely good on clay. They have a good footwork, so the pays will be long and I think the match will be more difficult for Simona than the previous one. Halep clearly beat Yastremska on Friday, and that was her first match since the tennis season restart when she (and her opponent) produced less than 6 breaks of a match. But. Putintseva plays much different than Yastremkas was. The Kazakh better on the return side, but worse on the serving side. It means this match will cover more breaks and this is good for us. Bookies think that it will be an even easier match for the Romanian, but I think they are wrong.

Two big hitter plays against each other in the next round at WTA Rome. Both of them were extremely solid on the serving side, so didn't lost any sets and it was hard to break them. Pliskova beat compatriot Strycova, then the Russian Blinkova and these matches contained 5 and six breaks of serve. Mertens palyed three matches and just the first one had over 7,5 breaks (8 against Hsieh), then she played better against Linette (5 breaks) and Kovinic (6 breaks). All in all, both of them serves well at the tournament, so I am pretty sure if it won't go 'til the third set, then we won't see more than seven breaks.