Australian Open Women - Aspiring Alexandrova ready to roll

It was a tough battle between Ajla Tomljanovic and Garbine Muguruza, but unfortunately for us, the Spaniard came out on top, 6-3 3-6 6-3. Now we are already into round three and today, #7 seed Petra Kvitova is presented a difficult task in aspiring Ekaterina Alexandrova. The weather most likely won't make an impact today as it's supposed to be less windy with no rains forecasted either. So let's move straight into the match preview.

Tough Conditions

"Tough opponent, tough conditions. Toughed it out". That's what Petra Kvitova came up with on social media after her 7-5 7-5 win over Paula Badosa. And indeed, it was a much tougher battle than her 6-1 6-0 victory in round one against Katerina Siniakova. You could also argue that the statement says a lot about Kvitova's general condition here in Australia.

As asthmatic, the Australian heat has always been difficult to handle for the Czech. Last year, she did outstanding in winning Sydney and reaching the final in Melbourne, but before that, the Australian Open have always been her pet peeve. Now with all the stories about bad air quality caused by the devastating bushfires, Kvitova's condition obviously suffers more than anybody else's. She's one of the biggest fighters on tour, but this is something we have to take into consideration. The air quality has improved a lot since last week, but it definitely impaired her preparations.

Ascending Alexandrova

The Czech's opponent today is Ekaterina Alexandrova, who also lives and trains in Prague. She also speaks the language fluently an almost got the Czech citizenship a few years back. Alexandrova is one of the most improved players over the last 52 weeks. Her serve has always been a strength, but she also worked on her return game a lot and keeps up in rallies much longer, hitting balls back with great depth, trying to get the upper hand.

After closing the last decade with a title in Limoges and starting the new one with another title in Shenzhen, the Russian had some minor issues here in round one against Jil Belen Teichmann. Her win was never in doubt though and she ended up winning 6-4 4-6 6-2. In her second match, she cruised past another Czech in Barbora Krejcikova, 6-1 6-3.

Serve Battle

Alexandrova is arguably playing the best tennis of her life. Coming off a great start to 2020, her confidence should be on a new high as well. In a battle of two great servers, I really see a tight match here. While bookies still made Kvitova a rather big favorite, the market already adapted the numbers a bit. Anyway, I still think there is value on Alexandrova, especially on the games handicap. Expecting some close sets, I think covering 3.5 games is viable for the in-form Russian.