WTA Strasbourg Preview and Picks

History

The tournament has been an inseparable part of the WTA calendar since 1987. It has such rich history with past winners which include Steffi Graf, Jennifer Capriati, Maria Sharapova.

Silvia Farina Elia won 3 titles in a row here between 2001-2003 and is the only winner of three consecutive titles while Anabel Medina Garrgiues has also 3 in total but not in consecutive years.

Defending champion is Elina Svitolina from Ukraine, she defeated Elena Rybakina in the final last year which was played in September as a tune up tournament before the French Open due to calendar changes because of the Covid pandemic. Neither of those players are here this time to defend the points.   

Favorites and Top Seeds

One top 10 player in face of Bianca Andreescu, then a bit of a gap before the 2nd seed Jessica Pegula (#28) , Ekaterina Alexandrova (#34) and Yulia Putintseva (#35) . All 8 seeds fit into top 50 but the last directed acceptance player is all the way down to no.102 Venus Williams

Bianca Andreescu made a couple of tries to get back to the tour since her run to the finals in Miami all the way back in March. Then she retired down 3-6,0-4 to Ashleigh Barty because of right foot injury.

She had tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival to Madrid and withdrew late from Rome citing an illness so until something happens again this would be the first tournament for the Canadian since March and on clay as well. Clay remains a surface where Bianca hasn’t had much play on with only 20 matches under her belt and 14-6 record and +17.9% ROI is hard to read what she can accomplish in Strasbourg and with the question mark surrounding her recovery from Covid, it’s even more difficult.

Jessica Pegula started the year 68th in the rankings but with QF in Australian Open, SF in Doha and QF in Dubai she was able to cut her ranking in half. Her clay court form is measured in only 2 tournaments this year, recent ones in Madrid and Rome where she lost in 3rd round and QF. Worth to mention that she has 22-8 record for the year with 24.8 % ROI on the moneyline and despite she is just 5-2 on clay in 2021 she still made you money with +45.3% ROI mainly because of her wins against Naomi Osaka and Daria Kasatkina. She is interesting one to follow as she seems to lose only to higher ranked players these days and she seems improving each time she steps on the court.

Very hard to read Ekaterina Alexandrova whole year. Despite being in 25-40 ranking bracket from the start of 2020 she has been scoring underdog wins with bad losses , but is worth to mention many times her draws weren’t exactly ideal to make it futher.  And especially on clay she has better record while being a moderate underdog +100 to +200 than being a favorite between  -200 and -110. And actually In this favorite price range she has not won a match on clay since Nurnberg in May 2019. She played only once here in Strasbourg losing in R1 to Siniakova in 2019.    

Putintseva has quite a good record all time on clay with 110-64 but if you have bet on her each match $100 she made you just over $700 but has lost you 173 from the beginning of the year. She is a pocket rocket who usually gets involved in hard battles despite the competition and ranking of the opponent but her form is just too questionable nowadays to have any sort of faith in her abilities to go for a deep run and strung some wins together.

Underdogs and Dark Horses

Sorana Cirstea hasn’t played since Madrid where she rolled her ankle in the first set after a fall against Pegula. It was unfortunate for her as she was getting steam from her title in Istanbul where on route to it she defeated Potapova, Kostyuk and most notably Elise Mertens all as underdog with against the Belgian being the biggest one at +350.  If her ankle is fine she could see a potential deep run with Venus Williams losing every match nowadays and Bianca Andreescu’s return to the tour from Covid.

Caroline Garcia has seen some bump in the right direction with changing his dad with Gabriel Urpi , as a coach from the Rafa Nadal academy. She was no. 4  in September 2018  and has declined to no.53 but there are glimpse of hope for sure now that she can return back to what she was not long time ago.  Expecting her to improve on this QF in Parma last week here on home soil where she is 78-47 overall with +10.4% ROI.      

Picks

Sorana Cirstea hasn’t played since Madrid where she rolled her ankle in the first set after a fall against Pegula. It was unfortunate for her as she was getting steam from her title in Istanbul where on route to it she defeated Potapova, Kostyuk and most notably Elise Mertens all as underdog with against the Belgian being the biggest one at +350.  If her ankle is fine she could see a potential deep run with Venus Williams losing every match nowadays and Bianca Andreescu’s return to the tour from Covid.

Caroline Garcia has seen some bump in the right direction with changing his dad with Gabriel Urpi , as a coach from the Rafa Nadal academy. She was no. 4  in September 2018  and has declined to no.53 but there are glimpse of hope for sure now that she can return back to what she was not long time ago.  Expecting her to improve on this QF in Parma last week here on home soil where she is 78-47 overall with +10.4% ROI.