Arconada Ascending
In tennis, overreactions are common when scouting talents, especially when these young players perform well on the big stage. However, there are so many other talented players in smaller tournaments that fly under the radar. One of them is Usue Maitane Arconada.
Born in Argentina, the now 20-year-old holds both American and Argentinian citizenship, but is currently playing under the stars and stripes. Since joining the tour in 2014, she has improved year after year, with a little hiccup last year. 2019 has been by far her best year so far and she already has three singles and three doubles titles to her name.
Talented Tandem
Arconada has talent that shines, no matter if there are two or four players on court. Her favorite surface is hard court, but her three doubles titles came on clay courts.
In today's doubles match, she will team up with fellow American Jamie Loeb to face the British-Hungarian duo Naomi Broady and Fanni Stollar. Both pairings won their first round matches rather comfortably. Broady/Stollar beat Jakupovic/Moore as well as Gibbs/Watson while Arconada/Loeb got the better of Elie/Halbauer and Hozumi/Ninomiya. I considered the 6-3 6-1 win over the top-seeded Japanese women to be a big statement.
Chasing Consistency
The fact that Arconada already won several tournaments on clay and hard courts this year confirms she has been playing a consistent level of tennis. Jamie Loeb had a tough first half of the year, but she has been getting better results since being back on US hard courts.
I believe the team of Broady/Stollar to be too inconsistent to back. Hungarian Fanni Stollar was rated as one of the more talented players when she arrived on tour. She relies on a big serve and big hitting from the baseline, but her overall game is still raw and she hasn't really made progress over the years. She's still young, but at this point, I do not trust her to win too many matches in a row.
Overall, I think this doubles contest is evenly matched. Broady will be the most attackable of the four players and I expect the two blondes to sprinkle more unforced errors throughout the match. Therefore, I will back the more consistent team at underdog odds.
