Daria Kasatkina vs Elise Mertens: Third Victory of the Russian

The Russians have powerful opponents in the last 16 of the tournament in Sydney. Alexandrova has Muguruza and Kasatkina has Mertens. Recently the Belgian has pleased her fans with excellent results in doubles, but Elise still keeps her place in the top 20, so Daria should get ready for a serious battle.

Daria was going well at the Melbourne tournament, reaching the semifinals. She knocked out Kalinskaya, Keys and Parrizas-Diaz. However, the Russian did not impress in the semifinals, quickly losing 2:6, 0:6 to Amanda Anisimova in an hour. It seemed that Kasatkina burned out. Already in Sydney, Daria easily defeated another American, Kenin, with a score of 6:4, 6:0 in an hour and four minutes. After that, Daria had even more questions about her straight defeat from Anisimova. Obviously, if Kasatkina can play on the same level as she did against Kenin, then the Russian will have a chance to pass over Mertens.

For Mertens, the match with Kasatkina will be the second official match in 2022. Before that, the Belgian played in Sydney against Ferro - that victory was hard-fought. The Belgian won the first set with a score of 6:2, but Elise had to try even harder in the second game since she had to play a tie-break (7:5). #20 in the world is still far from perfect form.

Kasatkina has beaten Mertens in the last two head-to-head meetings - in Stuttgart in 2019 and San Jose in August 2021. Despite these statistics and the fact that Kasatkina has a better playing practice at the start of 2022, bookmakers believe that the odds are about even for the opponents. We strongly disagree and suggest taking advantage of the bookmakers' mistake by betting on Daria's victory.