Varvara Gracheva (Russia) vs. Ajla Tomljanovic (Australia) – Score prediction (15.10.2019)

Preview and players comparison.

Gracheva has reduced her ranking to one-fourth of what it was at the start of the season (481 to 121). She recorded her maiden top 100 wins at Saint-Malo, beating Bolsova and Vikhklyantseva (ret) in straight sets. However, taking on a player of top 40 worth will be a next-level challenge for the home favorite.

Ajla Tomljanovic started the Asian swing with her maiden Premier-level semifinal at Zhengzhou, en route beating Kiki Bertens for her third career top 10 win. Any hope for a lasting turnaround evaporated as she won just two matches in the next four outings, leaving China with a first-round loss to Kudermetova at Tianjin. Tomljanovic has gone 16-10 in first-round matches this season, a fairly respectable record. As she seeks to confirm her career’s second top 50 season finish (2018), the Australian makes her third campaign at Moscow; finished in the second round of 2014 (l. Safarova) and the first round of 2018 (l. Pavlyuchenkova).

Varvara Gracheva extends her winning streak to 13 matches, clearing the qualifying rounds of Kremlin Cup with just one set loss. The 19-year-old Russian came fresh off lifting her biggest titles at two W60 clay-court events, at Saint-Malo, France, and Valencia, Spain, beating Kostyuk and Korpatsch in respective finals. The teenager has played 87 matches in 2019 (67-20), with two-thirds coming on clay (46-10). Once a junior top 20 player, Gracheva made her debut WTA level appearances at Lausanne and Washington, D.C., a few months ago, as a qualifier in both cases — lost to Xinyun Han and Anna Blinkova in the first rounds.

Match Info.

Competition: WTA – SINGLES: Moscow (Russia), hard (indoor) – 1/16-finals.
Start: 15.10.2019, 12:30 UTC.