Sorana Cirstea vs Lauren Davis Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Mutua Madrid Open

Prediction published on 24/04/2023, 07:07  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 24/04/2023 at 08:08 in Tennis Predictions

World number 44 Sorana Cirstea takes on Lauren Davis in the first round of the WTA Madrid clay court tournament. There's a tough task ahead for the winner with second seeded Aryna Sabalenka the scheduled opponent. Cirstea is playing her first clay court event of the year and it's been a successful 2023 to date. Her last tournament was the Miami Masters where the Romanian reached the last four and beat Sabalenka in the last eight. Before that, Cirstea got to the quarter finals in Indian Wells, losing to Iga Swiatek but beating world number five Carolina Garcia. Can she repeat that kind of success on clay though? The 33-year-old has reached the last eight in Madrid on two previous occasions and is also a former French Open quarter finalist. This is only her second match against Lauren Davis and it's been a long wait since the first meeting. That was ten years ago with Davis winning a hard court match in straight sets.

Lauren Davis began this tournament ranked 56th in the world but was as high as 49th earlier this year. 2023 began though with her ranked 87th but rose up the list when winning the Hobart International in January, though no top 35 ranked player was beaten that week. Davis hasn't been able to build on that success though and has failed to get past the last 32 of any of the other tournaments she's played this year. On clay, her first tournament of 2023 was in Charleston where the American lost to a qualifier in the first round. The first set was won against Katherine Sebov (ranked 148th at the time) but only won three games in the next two. Back Cirstea to win this and set up another match with Sabalenka.