tennis | Monday, June 19, 2023 8:58 AM

Monday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Birmingham, Anhelina Kalinina vs Alycia Parks

Jon Reid

Anhelina Kalinina vs Alycia Parks Best Bet: Monday, June 19th

Frustrating stuff from the women’s side, as Viktorija Golubic fell to Heather Watson. It wasn’t even a poor performance from the Swiss, who played a decent match and ran into a Watson that was going for bust and almost never missing. Even still, it was a narrow straight sets loss for Golubic.

This week, the WTA Tour shifts to Berlin for a 500-level event and Birmingham, England for a 250. For Monday’s preview, we’ll head to the latter and look at the match between Anhelina Kalinina and Alycia Parks.

In this article:

Anhelina Kalinina vs Alycia Parks Preview
Anhelina Kalinina vs Alycia Parks Best Bet

Anhelina Kalinina vs Alycia Parks Preview

June 19th, 14:00 (UK Time)

After an unlikely run to the final in Rome, Kalinina is looking to build on her success in the Italian capital with a run in Birmingham. Grass courts should be a place for her to do just that, with her flatter style and ability to play an effective counterpunching style rewarded on the faster, lower-bouncing courts.

An opponent like Parks should also serve the Ukrainian well. She may have a huge serve, but her erratic play and power from the baseline are both things that Kalinina can work with to fire the ball back into open space and use Parks’ power against her.

She also has a massive advantage on the backhand wing, where she can dictate play, force errors from Parks and generate angles that can exploit the American’s lack of foot speed.

Her defending should also be strong enough to extend rallies and get Parks to make the mistakes that have been so common since her title run in Linz in February.

Finally, Kalinina has at least gotten her feet wet in 2023 on grass courts. She lost to the flat-hitting and quick-court specialist Harriet Dart in Nottingham. Parks still hasn’t played this season on the slicker courts and one has to wonder if there will be an adjustment period for her as well.

Anhelina Kalinina vs Alycia Parks Best Bet

Despite having a few wins on grass last year on grass and possessing a big first serve, there is no doubt that Parks remains one of the most overvalued players on the women’s tour thanks to her late season charge through some indoor events against weaker opposition.

She’s been really poor on the whole outdoors on just about any surface and Kalinina’s game matches up too well with hers to only be a three-game favourite.