Elise Mertens vs Caroline Garcia Predictions: Can Mertens Reach Her Third Quarterfinals?

On Thursday, August 18, in the third round of the 2022 WTA Cincinnati Open, World No. 35 Caroline Garcia of France will go up against World No. 33 Elise Mertens of Belgium. Here you may find the preview, head-to-head, and advice.

Karoline Pliskova, the 2016 winner and a semifinals the previous year, was eliminated by world No. 33 Elise Mertens on Wednesday.

Before winning the first set in the tiebreak, the Belgian witnessed the Czech fight back from a break down twice. In the second set, she didn't encounter a single break point and broke once to win 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 and go to the third round.

Mertens had gotten off to a fast start in the competition, thrashing Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine 6-1, 6-1 in the opening round.

The Belgian is just one victory away from making it to her third quarterfinal of the season. Mertens has been in six doubles finals this year and won the solitary championship in Dubai, but she hasn't been able to produce success in singles on a regular basis. She advanced to the final eight in St. Petersburg and Strasbourg, but only reached the last 16 in each of the three major tournaments.

At the Cincinnati Open, Caroline Garcia kept up the pressure, narrowly defeating Maria Sakkari to advance for the third time in as many tries.

The Frenchwoman had difficult three-set victories against Diane Parry and Andrea Petkovic in the qualifying rounds to earn a spot in this year's main event. She defeated Petra Martic in the opening round with a score of 6-3, 6-3, extending her stellar performance.

In the first two matches they played against Sakkari, they split the victory. Garcia thoroughly outclassed the fourth seed, winning 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (6-8), and 6-1.

Garcia has been in excellent shape this year. Two of the nine WTA championships that the Frenchwoman has won so far in 2022 came from victories at the Poland Open and Bad Homburg.

The 28-year-old has a season record of 29-15 overall. She will be attempting to make her seventh WTA quarterfinal of her career on Thursday.

Expect this match to be a tight one once more, with Garcia defeating Mertens.

• Handiсap Caroline Garcia (-1) for 1.8
• Total Over 21.5 for 1.87
• Total Under 22 (3Way) for 1.95