On paper, this is the marquee matchup of the day. Svitolina has been one of the most consistent players on the WTA Tour in the last two years and Boulter has proven that she can be dangerous when at her best. The Brit made three finals in 2024 (winning in San Diego and Nottingham) before a very lean 2025. Their only prior meeting came back in 2020 with Svitloina winning in straight sets. There was much to like about Boulter’s opening round win over Starodoubtseva including 5 breaks of serve in the straight sets win. Making inroads on the Svitolina serve will determine how well she performs in this match but it is worth noting that the top seed did drop serve twice in her win over Gracheva. Assuming Boulter can match that, she will win enough games for the Over to hit.
The battle between Linette and Venus Williams was the match of the tournament thus far with the former getting the better of the American in three sets. It was a smoother path for Cocciaretto but I sense an overreaction from the market. Not only does Linette lead the H2H 2-1, but she was a dominant winner in their most recent clash. That came less than a year ago in Mexico with Linette posting a crushing 6-4 6-0 win. She picked apart the Cocciaretto second serve and a repeat will see her progress to the quarter finals.
Take note of these two names as both could make a rapid climb up the rankings in 2025. The pair share several similarities – both are 20 years of age, 2024 was the year that they make their first mark on the WTA Tour and they currently have their highest ever ranking. Marcinko is yet to win a Grand Slam match but that will be changing very soon. She won the Girls’ Singles at the Australian Open in 2022 and an array of ITF Tour titles followed. We were on the mark with Eala beating Vekic in the opening round but we will be taking her on here. Marcinko has an excellent 8-3 record against lefties and this is the first of many times that we will be backing her this year.
Kartal has claimed some impressive scalps in the last 6 months including Mirra Andreeva, Kasatkina and Ostapenko. She was more dominant in her win over Tjen than the three-set scoreline suggests and dropped serve only once throughout the course of the match. Eight aces, no double faults and 60% of 2nd serve points all get a huge tick leading into this match. Seidel was never going to have troubles against wildcard Monique Barry and this is a big step up in grade. Kartal in straight sets.