Jessica Pegula vs Veronika Kudermetova Prediction: Tough to call games at this point of tournament

The Madrid Open is breezing at an electric pace and we have seen that some players that were in the background have now come into the limelight and showcased prowess on clay surface, hunting down top-ranked athletes. This is a great precursor to what is going to come, i.e. the French Open. Anyway, continuing the Madrid Open train, Jessica Pegula will counter the threat of Veronika Kudermetova.

Pegula comes into this contest after surviving a 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 encounter versus Martina Trevisan. In this game, Pegula was 3% better at her first serve but since the serve distribution varied across periods, Martina had a 45-42 service points advantage. That’s why Pegula had to come up with something big on her return game and she did so, compiling a 47-37 receiving points edge. Pegula had beaten Marie Bouzkova in two sets, the second set going to a tiebreaker and began by defeating Magdalena Frech in the Round of 64. She has now at least made three straight Quarter-Finals. She has not made it past Semis in the past two tournaments so let us see how she comes up here. But before that, she has to make it to the Quarter-Finals.

Kudermetova makes it into the contest after defeating Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 in the Round of 16. Veronika survived an epic Daria effort where Kasatkina nailed 86% of her first serve. Despite Daria’s high first serve percentage, she was outplayed 61-59 in terms of service points. In terms of the return game, Daria had a 50-44 receiving points lead which means that although Veronika won fewer points, her resilience pulled it off. Veronika has had a tough draw, she had to survive a three-set thriller against Anastasia Potapova and in the Round of 64, she also had to fight a three-set battle against Nura Parrizas-Diaz. All her wins have run for long durations.

This is the first time these two will meet.

Jessica has been fine-tuned these days and has made huge inroads. On the other hand, Veronika has had to work awfully hard for her wins but on clay surface, such perseverance is rewarded. But will her long-duration game and numerous tactics work against Jessica? I believe this will be another gritty battle but Jessica will come on top.