Arantxa Rus vs Marta Kostyuk Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Korea Open

Prediction published on 15/09/2024, 10:00  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 15/09/2024 at 10:14 in Tennis Predictions

Fifth seed Marta Kostyuk begins her Korea Open campaign against unseeded Arantxa Rus. The winner will face a qualifier in round two, either Heather Watson or Lu Jiajing. Here's our match prediction.

Kostyuk is 18th in the live rankings but three places higher in the Live Race. This is a WTA 500 indoor hard court event being held in Seoul and Kostyuk will be out to at least match her career-high of 16th.

Her last tournament saw her make it to the last 32 of the US Open, losing to Emma Navarro. Before that, the last 16 had been reached in both the Rogers Cup (again beaten by Navarro) and Cincinnati.

This year has seen her get to one hard court final in San Diego and the last four at Indian Wells. Earlier in 2024, Kostyuk made it to the quarter-finals in both Adelaide and the Australian Open.

It's 1-1 in previous meetings between the pair. Rus won the only match played on a hard court but that was six years ago. Rus is currently 84th in the live rankings and 16 places higher in the WTA Race.

That higher ranking in the Race is due to her winning an ITF title and reaching the Hamburg final but both were played on clay. On hard courts, two quarter-finals have been reached in Transylvania and Cleveland.

Rus also lost to Navarro in the US Open. While Kostyuk took a set off the American, Rus only won two games. We tip Kostyuk to win this in straight sets.