The men and women battling for the trophy in the bottom half draw of the quarter finals round tonight
1. Pliskova vs. M. Linette
2. A. Sabalenka vs. D. Vekic
3. B. Shelton vs. T. Paul
4. A. Rublev vs. N. Djokovic
The predictions:
1. The stats on their H2H of Pliskova and Linette is 7-2. They met last year twice and Pliskova won 3-sets at the US Open while Linette won at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Glasgow in November, 6-4, 6-1. For the meeting tonight, Pliskova with big serves and more aggressive ground strokes could overpower her opponent who could run many balls down with great movement. As a former World No. 1 and a slam finalist under her belt plus her great performance of not losing a set coming through to this round will give her confidence to win tonight even though Linette is a giant killer for this event. Pliskova wins in 3 sets
2. The 7th meeting tonight between the world No.5, Sabalenka and Vekic will be an interesting one regarding their H2H surprisingly record of 1-5. Sabalenka has lately improved her giant serves; she struggled the 2 digit double faults last year and cost her many losses including the last match with Vekic in San Diego quarterfinals last November. Coming into this event as a qualifier, Vekic is a threat for Sabalenka as the H2H stats shown for one reason and her ability to aggressively pound a bigger ball in first return serve for another reason to make Sabalenka nervous if her big first serve fails. Vekic has a chance to beat her rival in this big stage if Sabalenka’s top form is not consitstant enough. Vekic could win in 3 sets
3. The battling between the two American new generations should be an exciting match to watch even though they are not contenders to win the title and surprisingly reach the quarter finals. Paul, who is in the professional career before Shelton, the youngster who is still a sophmore in college, should have more experience playing on a big stage. Both of them can hit the ball so big and have great footworks running the balls down. I will pick Paul to win over Shelton in 5 thrilling sets.
4. The Last match of the day between the 9th times AO champion and 21 grand slam title , Novak Djokovic and the world No. 5, Andrey Rublev, should be an entertaining and exciting one. Djokovic recently beat Rublev in the 2022 Nitto ATP finals in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 to make him lead 2-1 in H2H match up. Regardless of what happened last year to make him miss 2 grand slam tournaments, he is still undoubtedly the favorite to win his 10th AO title this year. He surely would battle comfortably with a big hitter like Rublev who has much less experience. Djokovic wins in 3 sets.
Enjoy the games with OhCamp tennis fans!
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