Mirjana Lucic vs Svetlana Kuznetsova

Mirjana Lucic is obviously someone who is never gonna establish her name at WTA level, but she still can produce a couple of solid matches from time to time. Being already 30, she doesn’t have too much to hope for, but still her results aren’t that bad this season, at least in comparison to previous years. Lucic’s favorite surface is clay and reasonably she plays the most of her tournaments on the slowest surface. Although she has no major success in woman’s tennis, some improvements are obvious in last few weeks. She entered the main draw in Rome, winning over Dulko and Hampton, but losing to Cibulkova in the first round. Even better result she earned this week in Strasboug as she won over Hermoso and Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez in qualifying rounds, but also won Keothavong in the first round of main draw, but later on she lost to the tournament winner Schiavone.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, on the other hand, is having the worst season since she forced her name between the very best players in the World. The Russian had only one semifinal and it was at the beginning of the season, at the first tournament she played in Auckland, hard court of course. Since then, her biggest result is couple of third round matches. Clay court season started with a Fed Cup match against Serbia, where she won over Ana Ivanovic, but lost to Jankovic (who is completely out of form this season) in two sets. Later on, she had to retire in the second round of Fes tournament to Begu in third set due to an injury on her left thigh. After that injury she played in Madrid and Rome, but exited both times in first round, losing to Azarenka and Ivanovic, both times in two sets.

It is not uncommon for Svetlana to struggle a lot in first rounds of the biggest tournaments, and it’s especially likely because of her injury few weeks ago. Three sets match shouldn’t be a surprise here and under such a circumstances, even Challenger player Lucic should be capable of taking seven games here.

Bet: Over 18 Games @1.95 with Pinnacle Sports