Varvara Gracheva vs Kamilla Rakhimova Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Hong Kong Open

Prediction published on 09/10/2023, 06:36  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 09/10/2023 at 07:36 in Tennis Predictions

Varara Gracheva is the eighth seed in the clay court Hong Kong Open and faces unseeded Kamilla Rakhimova in round one. For the winner there's a second round match against either Wang Xiyu or Katerina Siniakova, both who are unseeded. Gracheva begins this hard court tournament ranked 46th but is up three places in the live rankings. That's three places below her career high. 2023 has been a good year for the French player who began the year ranked 100th. The 23-year-old hasn't had a strong second half of the year and hasn't got past the last 32 of a tournament since the Bad Hamburg grass court event in June. Earlier in the year, Gracheva got to the final of a hard court tournament in Austin, the last 16 in Indian Wells and the last 16 in Miami with wins against Ons Jabeur and Daria Kasatkina. A quarter final and semi-final have been reached on clay. Her most recent tournament saw her beat then world number 28 Anastasia Potapova before losing to Iga Swiatek.

Kamilla Rakhimova is the world number 81 and down a couple of places in the live rankings. The Russian has had some recent hard cout success in WTA 125 tournaments but this is a clay court 250 tournament. Rakhimova lost in the final in Stanford in August but didn't beat any top 100 ranked players that week. There's been one previous meeting between the pair and it was played this year and on a clay court surface. Gracheva won that match in Paris in straight sets. We go for Gracheva to get another victory here.