Madison Keys vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: Bet on the American

In the last 64 of the Indian Wells tennis tournament, world number 13 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will face world number 50 Madison Keys. The girls played four times, the score was 2-2, and the American won the only hard court encounter.

Keys has been in deep crisis until recently. After reaching the Wimbledon last 16 and losing to Golubic in two sets, Madison had lost five consecutive matches, all in North America: in San Jose, Montreal, Cincinnati, New York, and Chicago. Keys’ long losing streak ended on October 7 in the first round of Indian Wells, where the American defeated Kanepi in two sets, with Madison winning the first set on nil. There is no doubt that this win will inspire Madison, who beat Pavlyuchenkova on the hard in Montreal in 2016. True, the last meeting between the American and the Russian, in late April 2021 in Madrid, ended with a confident victory for Pavlyuchenkova.

Anastasia hasn’t had much to brag about lately either. In Ostrava, the Russian was eliminated after her second match at the tournament, Anastasia was weaker than Martincova. In Chicago, she lost in the first meeting to Vondrusova in two sets. Anastasia has not yet played at Indian Wells, which is also a minus bet on Pavlyuchenkova. Let’s see if Pavlyuchenkova can show higher-level tennis in Indian Wells than in Chicago and Ostrava.

Keys is the underdog of the match. However, playing practice is on the American’s side, as are the home walls, if I may say so. Pavlyuchenkova has already beaten Keys this season but on clay. We all know that the American plays much worse on the clay than on the hard court. And the decline in Madison’s game, judging by the result of the first round, has passed. At the same time, Anastasia was a disappointment, both in Ostrava and in Chicago. We won’t be surprised if the bookmakers slightly overestimated the world number 13 and Madison Keys gets her second win at the Indian Wells tournament. Here are the betting odds for the meeting: Handicap 1 (+2.5) for 1.87, W1 for 2.20.