Match up Sunday Doliprane!

Well then...

… It’s going to be a long, intense match if Barbora is at 100%. Which, unfortunately, happens less and less. I don’t know if there’s a better technician on a fast surface. The Wimbledon champion will always have that little something extra, even when she’s behind, and she loves playing under pressure. I savor every minute of a Krejcikova match because I have so much respect and admiration for this WTA icon.

We know that physically, she feels the toll of playing match after match, but this time she seems ready after the United Cup. That said, we’re already talking about two quarterfinals here and only five first-round losses in 22 Grand Slams played. And her greatest quality, for me, is being clutch: she often wins her tiebreaks thanks to her command of the present moment and her ability to forget the previous point very quickly so she can be immediately mentally available for what comes next.

Left-handers? She loves playing them and beating them. An overwhelming stat: 78% wins over 18 matches.

Shnaider, an aggressive lefty, deadly forehand, short points, but a serve that’s still quite improvable at the start of this year. Weak point: her backhand, which she’s working on intensely with her coach, and her emotions. Against Mirra, we saw a pale version of Diana. Her glass ceiling against the top 10 remains intact. Last year at the Australian Open, she went out in the first round against the German veteran Siegmund, who completely rattled her with her variety of play.

So we have a Russian who will look for short points with constant aggression up against the queen of variation, capable of driving her crazy with drop shots, changes of pace, and moving forward into the court. Krejcikova will know that Shnaider is more vulnerable on the backhand side and will target it as much as possible. The tennis IQ is clearly higher on the Czech side. Diana will have to make her opponent run, but at the same time avoid getting drawn into rallies that are too long, which she risks being on the back foot in!