tennis | Wednesday, February 22, 2023 9:55 AM

Belinda Bencic vs Karolina Muchova Best Bet

Jon Reid

Belinda Bencic vs Karolina Muchova Best Bet: Wednesday, February 22nd

Nice win in straight sets from Rebecca Peterson taking out Nadia Podoroska for our Tuesday selection from the WTA side of things.

For Wednesday’s selection, it’s the matchup between Belinda Bencic and Karolina Muchova that piques my interest at the 1000-level event in Dubai.

In this article:

Belinda Bencic vs Karolina Muchova Preview
Belinda Bencic vs Karolina Muchova Best Bet

Belinda Bencic vs Karolina Muchova Preview

February 22nd, 10:00 (UK Time)

It’s another week with a really strong field in the middle east for the WTA Tour, and as the round of 16 is upon us, we once again have a slew of big matches to look forward to.

One such match is between the in-form Bencic and the resurgent Muchova, who will re-enter the top-100 in next week’s WTA rankings.

The Czech has dealt with her fair share of injuries over the course of the past few years, but make no mistake, when healthy she is a force on the court.

Muchova has an excellent serve, is comfortable hitting big from the baseline, but can also mix in dropshots and slices to disrupt opponents’ rhythm and add a layer of unpredictability to her game.

So far in 2023, Muchova has managed to hold her serve over 85% of the time – a remarkable number on the WTA Tour. Her first serve has been reliable, but it’s the 56% win rate on second serve points that really stands out. Muchova has managed to ensure that even her second serves aren’t all that attackable, and when you consider she’s breaking her opponents 30% of the time, it’s allowed her to really put pressure on her opposition.

Her only losses since the first week of the season have come against two of the bigger hitters on tour in Caroline Garcia and Danielle Collins, with both being tight three-set affairs.

I’m confident she can keep pace with Bencic in this one.

Despite the fact that the Swiss has only lost to the elite in the game this year, I think Muchova has the necessary skills to push back against her.

For starters, the dropshots and slices should be an effective countermeasure to Bencic’s liking to take the ball nice and early. Forcing her to move in and not allowing her to find an angle and take time away should come in handy.

Second, Muchova’s ability to hold serve consistently and win cheap points behind her serve should help extend sets and alleviate pressure if Bencic finds a patch of redline-like play.

Belinda Bencic vs Karolina Muchova Best Bet

The final factor to consider here is that Bencic has played a lot in the last three weeks. It began with a title run in Abu Dhabi a few weeks back (over 7.5 hours on court). She then played a pair of matches in Doha last week, before withdrawing over what we can only assume was fatigue (those two matches took over 3.5 hours to complete). Now she’s playing Dubai, and coming off a marathon match against Marta Kostyuk that took her nearly 3.5 hours to complete.

She’s certainly had a bit more rest entering this week, but that’s a lot of tennis in a three-week span and it appeared as though the wheels were coming off on Tuesday.

Now playing a much less erratic, more dynamic player with the ability to play power tennis, and one that is likely undervalued thanks to time away from the top level of the game, and I think we’ve found a nice position to take in this market.