Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will face Victoria Azarenka in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships. The match will start on February 20 at 11:00 UK time.
Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #1 – Handicap (-5) for Azarenka – 1.55.
Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #2 – Total Games Under 20 – 1.62.
Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #3 – 1st Set Games Under 9.5 – 1.432.
Even at her best, Pavlyuchenkova has not played well against Azarenka, losing five of seven head-to-head encounters. At the moment, Anastasia is clearly still far from her optimum form. We think Victoria is stronger than Anastasia by all parameters today and won’t experience any big problems. All the more, the Belarusian will play after last week’s disappointing defeat from Bencic and won’t allow herself to relax.
Given Pavlyuchenkova’s less-than-optimal form, we don’t expect the match to be long. It’s still hard for Anastasia to compete on equal terms with the top 20.
Anastasia has only won one match so far after suffering a knee injury. The comeback, as expected, is not going to be easy.
In early February, Pavlyuchenkova defeated Viktoria Kuzmova (6-3, 6-4) of Slovakia in the qualifying round of the tournament in Linz, Austria.
However, she failed to qualify for the main draw, losing in the decisive round to Viktoriya Tomova (3-6, 6-4, 3-6).
At the Australian Open, Pavlyuchenkova suffered a painful defeat at the hands of Camila Giorgi (0-6, 1-6).
In Adelaide, the former world #1 was immediately stopped by Jil Teichmann (5-7, 4-6).
Pavlyuchenkova has won just one match in Dubai since 2010.
Pavlyuchenkova has lost seven of her last eight matches overall.
Victoria won one match in Doha last week. In the first match, the Belarusian defeated Ipek Oz (6-1, 6-1) of Turkey before losing to Belinda Bencic (6-1, 6-7, 4-6).
In the second set, Azarenka led with two breaks but eventually managed to drop a set. In the decisive set, the Swiss did not make any more mistakes.
Azarenka’s biggest success so far this year has been reaching the Australian Open semifinals. The former world #1 was stopped by Elena Rybakina (6-7, 3-6) of Kazakhstan.
Victoria won two more matches in early January in Adelaide.
Azarenka has won six of her last eight matches on the hard court.
Type of Court – Hard
Speed of Court – 8/10
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s Rating – 730
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Wins/Losses in 2023 – 1/3
Victoria Azarenka’s Rating – 17
Victoria Azarenka Wins/Losses in 2023 – 8/4
In Azarenka’s two previous matches, less than 9.5 games have been played in the first set. We offer to bet on “1st Set Games Under 9.5” with odds of 1.432.
Azarenka leads with a score of 5-2 in the head-to-head encounters. The last time they met was at the French Open in 2021. In that match, Pavlyuchenkova defeated Azarenka (5-7, 6-3, 6-2) in three sets.
The match will be played in Center Court, Aviation Club Tennis Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
We recommend checking out the odds for the Dubai Tennis Championships: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Victoria Azarenka at 1xBet and VBET.