Karolina Pliskova vs Yulia Putintseva Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Cincinnati Open

Prediction published on 18/08/2021, 12:31  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 18/08/2021 at 13:32 in Tennis Predictions

Fifth seeded Karolina Pliskova takes on unseeded Yulia Putintseva in the second round of the Western & Southern Open. Plskova dropped out of the top ten earlier this year but is back up to sixth now. That's because the Czech reached the finals at both Wimbledon and in Toronto last week. Both finals were lost and it was disappointing last weekend as she was beaten by the unseeded Camila Giorgi (already out of this tournament). Pliskova also made it to the final in Rome this year but lost that one without winning a game, let alone a set. Pliskova is up to fourth in the live rankings due to the early exits of Bianca Andreescu and Elina Svitolina plus the absence of Sofia Kenin. Pliskova received a bye to this second round, so has had a few days to recover from Saturday's loss.

Yulia Putintseva is world ranked 36th but was in the top 30 until March of this year. It's been a rather inconsistent 2021 for her but last month did see her win a title. That success came in a WTA 250 level event (this is a WTA 1000 tournament) in Budapest but only one player in the top 100 was beaten that week. The recent Silicon Valley Open tournament saw her lose in the last eight to Elise Mertens. Her first round match in this event saw Putintseva defeat Zhang Shuai for the loss of only two games. These two players have had five previous meetings and Pliskova leads 4-1. The only win for Putintseva came in their first match nine years ago. They haven't met since 2019 when Pliskova beat Putintseva in Brisbane and Miami. Back Pliskova to get the win here.