Iga Swiatek vs Qinwen Zheng
April 20, 2023 9:00 am EDT
The Line: Qinwen Zheng +350 / Iga Swiatek -500
Iga Swiatek and Qinwen Zheng meet in the second round of the 2023 tennis Stuttgart Open. Let’s preview this game and give out a pick and prediction.
Iga Swiatek is coming off a semifinals’ appearance at Indian Wells, where she lost to Elena Rybakina in straight sets. Overall, Swiatek has won 10 of her last 12 completed matches, and she’s still the player to beat on the women’s side. Each of Swiatek’s last 24 matches have been decided in straight sets.
Swiatek hasn’t lost an opening match since 2021 Cincinnati. Swiatek has won 9 of her last 10 matches on clay court.
Qinwen Zheng is coming off a straight set win over Alycia Parks that took 20 games to decide. In the victory, Zheng won 87 percent of her first serve points and 53 percent of her second serve points. Zheng won 70 percent of her total service points and converted on 2 of her 6 break points.
Zheng got 50 percent of her first serves in play and saved her only break point. Zheng looks to win at least 2 matches for the third time in her last 5 tournaments. Zheng has 3 career wins over top-10 players, and 1 of those wins came this year. Zheng won 6 straight has matches on clay court.
Swiatek won both meetings against Zheng in 3 sets. The matches were 2022 San Diego and 2022 French Open.
Swiatek should be favored for obvious reasons, but Zheng is playing well at the moment and has a rhythm going. Zheng also took Swiatek down to the wire in the previous 2 meetings last year. This should be a competitive match that could very well go the distance yet again.
