Arantxa Rus vs Varvara Gracheva Prediction & Betting Tips - Hobart International

Prediction published on 08/01/2024, 08:17  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 10/01/2024 at 07:29 in Tennis Predictions

EIghth seed Varvara Gracheva takes on unseeded Arantxa Rus in the Hobart International second round. The winner goes into the quarter finals with a match against either top seed Elise Mertens or qualifier Anna Schmiedlova. Gracheva began this tournament ranked 39th which is a career high and 59 places higher than her ranking at this time last year. 2024 began for the French playerre with a run to the quarter finals in Auckland where she was beaten by eventual champion Coco Gauff. The 23-year-old reached one WTA final last year, the ATX Open in the USA. That was played on a hard court which is the surface this tournament is being played on. The quarter final in Auckland was her first last week was her first since a clay tournament last May. The last 16 of two hard court WTA 1000 events were also reached and the third round of the Australian Open. Round one in Hobart saw her get a three-set win (middle set lost) over unseeded Peyton Stearns and that's taken her up to 38th in the rankings.

Arantxa Rus is up three places at 47th in the live list after her first round win over lucky loser Linda Fruhvirtova. That was also a three-set victory with the middle set being lost but the other two sets both being won 6-3 by the Dutch player. Rus represented the Netherlands in last week's United Cup. Her singles match against lowly ranked Malene Helgo was won but she was beaten by Croatia's Donna Vekic in three sets. Rus will be hoping to get some good preparation for the upcoming Australian Open. Her Grand Slam record is pretty appalling with her last 12 first round matches all being lost. The 33-year-old had some success on the ITF circuit last year and won some WTA tournaments but on clay. We go for Gracheva to progress to the last eight.