Aryna Sabalenka vs. Jasmine Paolini – Prediction – WTA Linz (Austria) 10.11.2020

H2H: Aryna Sabalenka v Jasmine Paolini – comparison.

During the pair’s only previous clash, in June 2017, the pair were ranked just two places within each other — Sabalenka at 128, Paolini at 130. They met in the first round of the $100k Ilkley, a grass-court tournament in the UK, with the Italian surviving 4-6, 7-5, 7-6. Such a result is highly unlikely to happen on Tuesday.

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Aryna Sabalenka won her second title of the season at the indoor hard-court tournament of Ostrava in Czech Republic; the other one came at the Premier-five Qatar Total Open. She took US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka in WTA’s first-ever all-Belarus final and benefited from her opponent’s illness to claim her seventh career title. Sabalenka, who was also crowned the champion of Ostrava in doubles with Mertens, has everything going in her favor as she starts her debut appearance in Linz while seeded no. 1. The world no. 11 has claimed at least one win in ten out of her 11 outings this season; the loss to Suarez Navarro in Melbourne being the exception.

Jasmine Paolini’s first full season as a top 100 player has been a disaster. She has managed to win just five matches in 13 tournaments; four of them came on clay courts after the pandemic break, while the lone hard-court one was a straight-set victory over world no. 154 and compatriot Trevisan at Shenzhen back in January. In contrast, the Italian had won nearly 50 matches in her breakout 2019 season, including a final at W100 level in Tokyo and a couple of WTA quarterfinals at Palermo and Guangzhou. She is in no position to make her third campaign at Linz any special, having previously exited this tournament’s qualifyings in 2017 and 2019.

Match Info.