Elena Rybakina vs Varvara Gracheva: Rybakina to face problems in the first round

Round of 32 of the WTA St. Petersburg will end with a duel between the Kazakhstani tennis player, Elena Rybakina and Russian Varvara Gracheva. The athletes have never crossed each other in the tour, but the bookmakers unanimously consider Elena to be the big favorite. It should be noted that the upcoming match will be the first one for Rybakina at the tournament, while Gracheva has had a good qualification with three victories in three games.

This match will be the first for Elena Rybakina after the disappointing performance in Melbourne when the representative of Kazakhstan withdrew from the tournament in the second round, at the very beginning of the second set against Zhang Shuai. Rybakina lost the first set 4-6. Before the Australian Open, Elena had played two tournaments in Australia: she reached the finals in Adelaide and was eliminated in the second round of Sydney after beating Raducanu.

Varvara started got off to a very poor start of the season, having lost two matches in two Australian tournaments: in Melbourne and at the Australian Open. But St. Petersburg saw the Russian player successfully pass the qualifying, losing no set in three games. Gracheva knocked Anshba, Bara, and Bogdan out of the draw. The match against the Romanian lasted 1 hour and 42 minutes, the score was 6-4, 6-4. Varvara had two aces and seven double faults, won 62% of points on the first serve, 52% on the second serve, and 63% of points on the second serve. The gained practice should help the Russian player in her confrontation with a strong opponent.

Rybakina has not the strongest health - it's not for nothing that the Kazakhstani withdrew from two tournaments in Australia. Elena has not played indoor in 2022 yet unlike her future rival who had a successful qualification in St.Petersburg. It is unlikely that Gracheva may defeat Rybakina but she may put up a decent fight against the representative of top-15 world tennis players. Here are the betting options for you to consider: H2 (+5.5) for 1.77; Correct Score 2-1 for 4.00; H2 (+5.5) for 1.67.