Daria Kasatkina vs. Jessica Pegula: Preview and betting tips

The tournament in Madrid is history. The titles were won by Aryna Sabalenka and Alexander Zverev. Now the players will face a big tournament in Rome. The men will play for 1,000 points, the women for 900. The interesting match of the first round is between Daria Kasatkina and Jessica Pegula. Both players are in great form and climbing up the rankings. Who will win?

The Russian has struggled in previous seasons. She hasn’t had the results she had before, she has gone down in performance and she has fallen down the rankings. The time when she was a member of the top 20 is over and she has fallen to the border of the top 50.

However, at the beginning of this season a turning point came. Kasatkina started to get into great shape, her performances were different than last year. She won titles in Melbourne, St. Petersburg, and scored scalps over Martich, Pavlyuchenkova and Kuznetsova.

She has a fantastic 17-6 record this season. She’s in the top 40 in the rankings. And she’ll be looking to build on that in Rome. But she’ll face a very tough opponent in the opening round.

Her opponent will be Jessica Pegula. One of the biggest comets of the season. She’s having a fantastic season. Quarterfinals of the Australian Open, semifinals in Doha, quarterfinals in Dubai, winning 18 of her 25 matches. She’s beaten top tennis players (Ka. Pliskova, Azarenka, Svitolina).

Thanks to that, she moved up 30 places in the rankings to 33rd position. Her unpleasant, running and active tennis is unplayable for many tennis players. Against the Russian, Pegula will be the favourite and has a fairly solid chance of advancing.

It is difficult to predict the winner of this duel. Both tennis players are in great form, showing great tennis. The American is the slight favourite. She has beaten a lot of strong players this year, she is the future of women’s tennis, her tennis is ideal for clay court.

The Russian is also doing well this year, but she has played against more mediocre tennis players. Her performance has not been fully tested by the top tennis players. That’s why I rather prefer Pegula to win at nice odds.