Uncertainty Reigns

There are a lot of questions in Kudermetova vs Parrizas Diaz

My word, what to make of this match.

From Polina Kudermetova having just one win since the start of April (which came against a 21-year-old ranked outside the top-500 that was once a promising youngster and has failed to live up to the hype), to Nuria Parrizas Diaz clearly being hampered in recent times, someone has to move onto the second round in New York.

The former showed us what her best level can do down under all the way back in January, as she qualified in Brisbane and made it all the way to the final behind her strong first serve and powerful groundstrokes. As is often the case with fairly young players who have a high ceiling talent wise and break out at a 500 level tournament, however, the younger Kudermetova struggled after the sudden ranking jump allowed her to play main tour events more consistently.

The game lacks refinement and variety and her penchant to uncork unforced errors with regularity has troubled her to no end for quite some time. Between Madrid and Cincinnati, the 22-year-old failed to win a single match. It didn't help that she elected to play just two events below the 500 level during that span.

As for Parrizas Diaz, I've always found her ability to deal with pace fairly admirable. The counterpunching and lower net clearance at times can be a great equalizer for her against players that would typically be able to push her around. The question mark in her case? We haven't seen her sustain a decent level for more than 45-60 minutes in a while.

After retiring in back-to-back matches in July, Parrizas Diaz has looked a bit better, but lost from a set up in both tournaments she played and only managed to close out her match against doubles specialist Anna Danilina.

Tough to get any kind of traction on this match. Looks as though the market agrees with that assessment, as it's fairly closely priced.