Shuai Zhang vs Katerina Siniakova Prediction: Zhang has done well lately

The US Open is knocking at our doorsteps and the busy tennis schedule will only heat up with a lot of money at stake as well as rankings. But before the US Open, the tennis scene continues to throw us amazing battles and the same will happen during the Tennis in the Land, which takes place in Cleveland. In this battle of the tournament, Zhang Shuai will take on Karolina Pliskova during the Round of 32.

Veteran Zhang Shuai comes into the tournament after registering a superb run during the Cincinnati Masters. She managed to reach the Quarter-Finals, losing to Aryna Sabalenka in a thriller but before that, she had beaten Anett Kontaveit, Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Naomi Osaka. Zhang has continued to be a busybody during the stacked tennis season and will enter the tournament with a lot of confidence.

While the 33-years old Zhang lacks the elite status, her experience and expanding game always makes her a tough draw. She hasn’t made a Semis/Finals run during the major tournaments but she has rediscovered her mojo lately. She doesn’t commit many errors but her serve game doesn’t cut it many times, so she will need to reconfigure her game a bit. But the time is running out for China’s stalwart for sure and she will need to pull off something special from her hat

Katerina enters the tournament after losing to Andrea Petkovic in the Qualifiers of the Cincinnati Masters. While she is a wonderful ITF player, success as a Singles player in the WTA circuit has been rather limited lately. Siniakova’s success in the Singles tournament has been rather limited and she is ranked closer to the 100 ranking at this point after she had achieved 31 in 2018.

Siniakova’s best return came during the 2019 French Open when she reached the Fourth Round but she is yet to reach the Quarter-Finals of a Grand Slam. Katerina’s biggest achievement lately was beating Darya Kasatkina during the German Open where she lost to Bernarda Pera in the Quarter-Finals. She is still 26 and can still make a sizeable impact but her game is more suited to Doubles.

Zhang and Katerina have met twice and Katerina has won both times. They last met on the Clay Court in 2017 Rome Open where Katerina took the three set battle. 

Zhang’s recent returns have been solid and at 33, she has seen a long list of battles in her career. Katerina at 26 has achieved a lot in the Doubles system, but the Singles performances have been a bit lagging. While she doesn’t usually go deep in the WTA tournaments, she is a tough match-up and does well while chasing the ball. I still would back Zhang here.