Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) vs. Viktoria Kuzmova (Svk) – Score prediction (10.10.2019)

Overview.

The pair have met twice in the last twelve months. Pavlyuchenkova edged, 7-5, 7-5, here at Linz last year, while the youngster retaliated in the opening round of Miami in March 6-7, 6-4, 7-5. In the latter match, Kuzmova lost the first set after leading by 5-2 but eventually won in two hours and 32 minutes.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was slated to kickstart her fifth campaign at Linz against top seed Bertens. Following a draw reshuffle, the now ninth seed took down wildcard Barbara Haas, 6-3, 6-3, in 102 minutes. It wasn’t the most convincing serving performance from the Russian, getting broken four times.Four years ago, Pavlyuchenkova triumphed at Upper Austria to become the first Russian champion at the indoor event in nearly a decade. She followed it up quarterfinals in 2016 and 2018. Runner-up at Osaka last month, 28-year-old bids to win back-to-back matches for the second time since April.

Viktoria Kuzmova also dismissed a local wildcard in her first-round match, beating world no. 241 Julia Grabher, 6-4, 6-2, claiming 90% on her first serve and firing six aces. The Slovak has been playing at Linz for the third straight year now, with her only previous main draw win coming in 2017 (Friedsam). As is the case with Pavlyuchenkova, Kuzmova rolled into the 2019 season with a few desirable results: semifinal at Auckland and quarterfinal in Dubai. Since February, however, the 21-year-old has managed to post a couple of International last-eight appearances at best, at Bucharest and Tashkent.

Match Info.

Competition: WTA – SINGLES: Linz (Austria), hard (indoor) – 1/8-finals.
Start: 10.10.2019, 12:00 UTC.