tennis | Monday, October 17, 2022 8:42 AM

Monday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Guadalajara, Petra Kvitova vs Bernarda Pera

Jon Reid

Petra Kvitova vs Bernarda Pera Best Bet: Monday, October 17th

After a tough end to the week, we’ll look to get back to winning ways with our women’s selections on Monday, as the main tour heads to Guadalajara, Mexico for a big event that features a rather large field as well.

After being a successful guest host of last year’s WTA Finals (the crowds were plentiful and raucous), Guadalajara was awarded with another one-year licence – this time to host a WTA 1000.

For Monday’s selection, we’ll take a look at the match featuring a pair of big-hitting lefties in Petra Kvitova and Bernard Pera.

In this article:

Petra Kvitova vs Bernarda Pera Preview
Petra Kvitova vs Bernarda Pera Best Bet

Petra Kvitova vs Bernarda Pera Preview

October 17th, 22:00 UK Time

Fun one here between the pair of southpaws. After a close match in their first meeting, Pera will look for revenge in the altitude of Jalisco’s capital.

If you’re a fan of big serving and players that take big cuts from the baseline, generating plenty of power, this is certainly the match for you.

For Kvitova, the gameplan is pretty standard. One of the biggest first serves in the game, huge forehand and look to dictate off that wing. The backhand isn’t the greatest and she’s not a swift mover by any means. It may be a fairly straightforward approach, but it isn’t necessarily simple to execute with the consistency she does.

As for Pera, she too can bludgeon the ball from the service line, or in baseline exchanges. I would say her backhand is more likely to generate winners than her opponent’s, and she’s certainly a bit more fleet of foot. Her issue? There is rarely a tactical gameplan to fall back on if her hitting starts to get a bit erratic and her consistency and mental game issues have been a concern.

Quite frankly, it’s about all that’s kept her from making the leap into the world’s top-25 in her career.

The key for Pera here will be that the courts are slow enough that she won’t be rushed into hitting even more errors than she already does, while the thin air (Guadalara is over 1,500 metres above sea level) could prove to be much tougher on the veteran Czech as this one wears on.

Petra Kvitova vs Bernarda Pera Best Bet

Not only does this price seem off for the aforementioned reasons, but it’s also worth noting, these two played recently (also in slower conditions) in Ostrava. That match went three sets and was incredibly close, outside of a blistering start from the Czech.

Propelled by the home crowd and Pera’s inability to play with more margin for error when things started to go haywire, Kvitova came back from a break down in the deciding set to win that one 6-4 in the third.

Yet, here we see nearly the same pricing, despite Pera being competitive and on the precipice of pulling off the upset last time. Combined with the fact that her game can absolutely hang with Kvitova’s and the altitude and slower court speed likely benefiting her more, I’m more than happy to back her to keep this one close once again, and even finish the job she failed to last time around.