Veronika Kudermetova vs. Elise Mertens – Prediction – WTA Linz (Austria) 13.11.2020

H2H: Veronika Kudermetova v Elise Mertens – comparison.

Mertens has come on top in all four of her previous meetings with Kudermetova. The first two came on the junior tour, prevailing at ITF Junior Open Linz and Eddie Herr Championship in 2012. The professional clashes came at $25K Moscow in 2016, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, and this year’s W&S Open held at Flushing Meadows, 6-2, 6-3.

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Elise Mertens needed two and a half hours to overcome 36-year-old Vera Zvonareva, edging the 2008 finalist 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. She was forced to a decider despite leveling off a 0-4 deficit in the second set. The second seed also faced an uphill task in the opening round, having to rally against qualifier Anhelina Kalinina from a set down. This is the Belgian’s eighth quarterfinal of the season, the most she has recorded on tour in one year (previous best was seven in 2018). However, she has pulled off a disappointing 2-5 win-loss across her previous ones, going on to reach the final of Prague in August and the semifinal of W&S Open in New York in the next month.

Veronika Kudermetova played a pair of contrasting matches to get her debut campaign at Upper Austria Ladies Linz running. She devastated local wildcard Barbara Haas, 6-0, 6-0, in just 53 minutes but needed to go to a third set to see off world no. 72 Arantxa Rus on Thursday, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, in an hour and 42 minutes. Kudermetova travelled to Linz after breaking her lull at Ostrava. She played the indoor hard-court event as a qualifier and beat Vekic and Ka. Pliskova en route just her second quarterfinal of the season. She hasn’t actually won either of the quarterfinals, receiving a walkover in Hobart and losing to Brady in three sets in Ostrava.

While the second seed is the favorite to stroll past Kudermetova, having won 21 matches in her last seven tournaments, Mertens owns a less-than-impressive season record against top 50 players (10-10). The Russian, on the other hand, is a poor 3-8 in her career WTA quarterfinals, though has won three of the last five.

Match Info.