Elise Mertens vs Sorana Cirstea Prediction: Can Elise break her losing-streak against Sorana?

The WTA scene is in full-fledged mode as we head into the US Open where a lot of money will be at stake as well as the rankings. But before we move towards the US Open, the American tennis locations will lift up in Cleveland during the Tennis in the Land tournament. In this WTA game, Elise Mertens will take on Sorana Cirstea in the Round of 32 game.

Mertens comes into the tournament after reaching the Round of 16 during the Cincinnati Masters where she was defeated by Caroline Garcia in a close two-set game. During the year, Elise has done well reaching the 33rd ranking at the time of the last release and reaching the Fourth Round of Grand Slams, Wimbledon, the French Open, and the Australian Open, which implies early success.

Mertens is a top Doubles player and has built her game around the net to succeed at that level. While a Semis run during Grand Slams is yet to come, Mertens is among successful WTA players. Elise does well as a baseline player and knows when to turn defense to offense, also being one of the most effective counterpunchers. She has enjoyed a lot of success this year.

Sorana Cirstea comes into the tournament after losing to Petra Kvitova in the Round of 32 during Cincinnati Masters. She defeated Belinda Bencic in the first round of the tournament. However, there have been mostly lean runs, especially during Major tournaments. During French Open and Wimbledon, her campaign was thwarted in the second round while even in non-Grand Slam tournaments, she hasn’t made deep runs.

Sorana is currently ranked at 36 and her ranking has hovered around the 20-30 range since 2013 when she peaked at 21. Cirstea has been an active WTA player since 2008 and has a long list of games in her bag. Sorana loves playing as an aggressive baseliner but she has the tendency to commit too many unforced errors and can be even overwhelmed by lower-ranked players at times. However, she has built a solid career overall.

Sorana and Elise have met thrice in their careers, where Cirstea has won during all the games. She last defeated Elsie during last year’s Istanbul Open.

Elise is more of a finesse player than Cirstea and she has enjoyed more success in recent times. However, Sorana has already beaten Elise thrice and is yet to drop a set. Wouldn’t this mean that she has the edge here? But winning streaks are never secure in the WTA scene which always brings us eye-rolling results. I believe Elise will break the curse against Cirstea and win here in two sets.