A Slovak girl in a Master’s program?

This is the image she’s suggesting for now.

A player I follow closely and who I’m convinced will get back into the top 50 this year. Aggressive from the baseline, she also defends extremely well and has a very good quality of return. Hobart offers rather medium-slow conditions, with a medium-to-high bounce and a lot of wind. Perfect for Šramková, who should feel comfortable. On serve, she likes to finish the point quickly. It’s also worth noting that she is almost blind in her left eye due to a congenital disease. Standing at nearly 1.80m, she has an interesting wingspan on court, backed up by a nice two-handed backhand and a powerful forehand.

Varvara Gracheva is not the queen of consistency. Her baseline game favors long, structured rallies, with good court coverage. Her match against Svitolina, however, was poor, especially on serve.

A lot of strengths and weaknesses cancel each other out here in the end, and the outcome will mainly depend on the quality of the Slovak’s serve. Not the match of the year on paper. Rebecca has started her season better and should quickly take the lead in short patterns thanks to her power from the baseline. Varvara is likely to be put under pressure on her second serves if she produces the same serving level as in Auckland.