Anastasia Potapova - Ekaterina Alexandrova predictions and free betting tips [02/02/2024]

A grand women's tournament is taking place in Linz, on indoor hard courts. We are anticipating a rather curious battle of two Russians in the quarter-finals. Last year's winner of these competitions, Anastasia Potapova, defends her trophy. The semi-final pass will be contested against Ekaterina Alexandrova, who once often won indoor tournaments, albeit of low grade.

Anastasia Potapova

There was a strange calendar of games for Potapova in the past season, seeming as though she muted it, but could also have been preserving herself from injuries, of which she had plenty in 2023. Who knows, it could be anything.

This year started for Anastasia in Brisbane, where the Russian once again received an injury, unable to finish the match with Elena Rybakina. Many questions arise about Potapova's conditions, it feels like her injuries are a result of incorrect work in the training process. Anastasia proceeded directly to the main grid of the Australian Open, where it seemed that she would surpass Kaja Juvan, but nothing worked out, the Slovenian tennis player was simply better prepared in all aspects.

In Linz, Potapova had two matches against Italians. First, she had to deal with Sara Errani, who practically conceded her place in the 1/8 finals to the Russian, and then there was a straight battle with Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who insists on her own regime of play. Anastasia surrendered the 1st set to the Italian, then recovered from 1:3 in the 2nd game and went to a tie-breaker with two match points, and the 3rd set was a mistake contest from both sides. However, Potapova was slightly more reliable than Cocciaretto, particularly when she took the opponent's serve twice, but served cleverly on the match the second time.

Such a scenario might not work with Alexandrova, especially as Ekaterina serves better with the 1st ball. Everything will depend again on the number of errors, the one who makes more "unforced" will concede.

Ekaterina Alexandrova

Alexandrova had a decent or even smooth last season. She won the grass tournament in Hertogenbosch, was in the final of a hard competition in Cleveland, conceding the title to Sara Sorribes Tormo and had local successes, so Ekaterina consolidated her position in the ranking, but hasn't yet made it into the top-20.

This season began for Ekaterina with a failure in Brisbane, and then she had a good tournament in Adelaide, where she defeated Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals, but didn't manage to win the battle for the qualification into the finals with Alona Ostapenko. Alexandrova couldn't get past the first round in Melbourne, all because of a match against the troublesome opponent Laura Siegemund, who disrupted the pace of play unpredictably.

In Linz, the Russian has played only one match against Jule Niemeier. The German's defensive tennis wasn't much of a problem for Ekaterina, so she won easily (6:3;6:0). Against Anastasia Potapova, Alexandrova needs to show a more attacking game than usual. If Ekaterina manages to take control of the initiative, I have no doubt that she will win this match.

Head-to-Head

In 2021, at the tournament in Ostrava, the girls didn't finish the qualifying match, where due to injury Ekaterina Alexandrova conceded to Anastasia Potapova.

Match prediction: Anastasia Potapova - Ekaterina Alexandrova

I will be backing Alexandrova with a negative handicap on games. It's just that stylistically, Potapova will lose to her compatriot in this match.