Anhelina Kalinina vs Hailey Baptiste Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA French Open

Prediction published on 23/05/2022, 14:16  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 23/05/2022 at 16:06 in Tennis Predictions

Anahelina Kalinina takes on Hailey Baptiste in the first round at Roland Garros. The winner of this match faces either 11th seed Jessica Pegula or Wang Qiang in round two. Kalinina began this tournament ranked 36th in the world which is a career high. A win over Baptiste can take her up to 34th in the live rankings. The Ukrainian has only been in the main draw at Roland Garros once before. That was last year when Kalinina lost in the second round to Danielle Collins but beating Angelique Kerber in the first round. The 25-year-old has reached a couple of quarter finals on clay in recent weeks. Those took place in Charleston (where Elina Rybakina was beaten) and Madrid where she had wins over Garbine Muguruza and Emma Raducanu. Her most recent tournament in Rome saw her defeat Madison Keys before withdrawing from her scheduled second round match against Jessica Pegula.

Hailey Baptiste is ranked 123rd in the current list and had to qualify to get into the Roland Garros main draw. Baptiste played three matches and each of them went to a final set. That took her into the main draw here for the second year in a row after losing in the last 64 in 2021. Baptiste has the pressure on her because a first round loss will see her drop out of the top 140 in the world. The 20-year-old won one clay court tournament on the ITF circuit, that's compared to the 13 won by her opponent. Baptiste has had an inconsistent year with her best performance being a quarter final in an ITF circuit match in Orlando. Back Kalinina to get the win here in straight sets.