Daria Kasatkina vs Peyton Stearns Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Cincinnati Open

Prediction published on 12/08/2023, 08:00  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 14/08/2023 at 07:47 in Tennis Predictions

14th seed Daria Kasatkina faces wild card Peyton Stearns in the first round of the Western & Southern Open. This is being played in Cincinnati and is the WTA 1000 hard court event is the final one before the US Open. Whoever wins this match will take on either Elina Svitolina (who recently beat Kasatkina in Washington) or the returning Caroline Wozniacki in round two. Kastakina is currently 12th in the live rankings and reached the last eight in the Montreal WTA 1000 tournament, losing to Elena Rybakina in three sets. This year has seen her reach one hard court final. That was right at the start of the year when losing to Belinda Bencic in the second Adelaide International tournament. There's been one previous meeting with Peyton Stearns. That was on clay at Roland Garros with Kasatkina the winner and losing just one game.

Peyton Stearns will hope it's a lot closer than that in this tournament. The American is 54th in the live rankings and that beats her career high of 55th achieved in January. Stearns didn't do as well as Kasatkina in Montreal. The qualifying rounds were successfully negotiated though she dropped a set to Katherine Sebov. Stearns then lost in straight sets to Leylah Fernandez in round one. The 21-year-old had previously qualified for the Washington hard court event and lost in round two to Jessica Pegula. Highlights of her 2023 have included winning two ITF tournaments and losing in the final of three others. On the WTA Tour, the last eight was reached in the hard court ATX Open in Houston but no top 150 ranked players were beaten. We go for Kasatkina to win this in straight sets.