tennis | Thursday, February 8, 2024 9:34 AM

Tennis Picks Today for February 8th: Free Prediction for Rybakina vs Collins and Pliskova vs Osorio

Jon Reid

Tennis Picks Today: February 8th

Rybakina vs Collins: Rybakina -4 games
Pliskova vs Osorio: Pliskova to win

Nice day on Wednesday, with Arantxa Rus coming from behind and outlasting an expectedly tired Alize Cornet, while Denis Kudla got the job done in straight sets.

For Thursday, we have a pair of women’s matches. The first comes from the Abu Dhabi Open, this week’s WTA 500-level tournament. The other is in Cluj at the Transylvania Open.

Let’s dig into Elena Rybakina vs Danielle Collins and Karolina Pliskova vs Camila Osorio.

For more daily tennis tips, visit the bettingexpert community, but if you want more expert tips from Jon Reid, visit our Expert Insights section.

In this article:

Elena Rybakina vs Danielle Collins Expert Tip
Elena Rybakina Recent Form
Danielle Collins Recent Form
Elena Rybakina vs Danielle Collins H2H Stat of the Match
Karolina Pliskova vs Camila Osorio Expert Tip
Karolina Pliskova Recent Form
Camila Osorio Recent Form
Karolina Pliskova vs Camila Osorio H2H Stat of the Match
Safer Gambling

Elena Rybakina vs Danielle Collins Prediction: Steady Nature of Rybakina to Win Out in Battle of Power Players

Pick: Rybakina -4 games
Best Odds: 1.91
Bookmaker: Pinnacle
Stakes: 3/10

Odds as at 9:00 am UK Time on February 8th, 2024. Odds may now differ.

Go with our tip at bet365I’m not normally one to oppose Collins with higher game handicaps, as her power means she can beat almost anyone on her day. The key word there? Almost. There are two players I think she profiles horrendously against. Aryna Sabalenka is one and Rybakina is the other. Why? Glad you asked.

Collins’ strength is her raw power. The problem is that it’s volatile and she loses the plot fairly often. Rybakina and Sabalenka are the two players that stick with her from the baseline in big-hitting rallies, but they’re both able to sustain that hitting point to point, game to game and set to set.

Then there’s the fact that the American also feasts on weaker serves, particularly second serves. Rybakina is one of the best servers in the game and has a second serve that requires players to ease off a bit or risk hitting a slew of errors and giving her cheap points on both the first delivery and the second.

Knowing that when she struggles, Collins also struggles to adjust and really only has one gear means I also like the chances for the blowout, meaning the higher handicap doesn’t really scare me off.

Read on for more Expert Insights.

Elena Rybakina Recent Form

After a blazing start to the year in Brisbane, Rybakina has cooled off a bit. Now, the following week almost looked like the world No. 5 was more than content with her first tuneup tournament for the Australian Open and didn’t really care to go deep in Adelaide, while the loss in Melbourne came at the hands of an inspired Anna Blinkova and required a 42-point super tiebreak. I’m not going to hold those against her.

She is one of the world’s best hard court players, she’s shown the ability to win on both quicker and slower courts and her power is elite.

With more consistency to her game and a less vulnerable serve, I’m not really going to overthink this one.

Danielle Collins Recent Form

It’s been a rocky start to the season for Collins, and it appears that frustration has gotten to her. After blowing a late lead against Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open, the American blindsided the tennis world and announced that she was going to retire soon from the sport.

Whether that was out of frustration or her actual plan, I can’t say for certain, but it was fairly indicative of how things were going in the first month of the season.

She’s looked a little better this week, having won two qualifying matches and her first-rounder, all in straight sets.

We know Collins has huge power that is fairly volatile and a personality on the court to match. She’s a fiery competitor, but that can also work against her.

The one positive of her start to the week in the United Arab Emirates is that Collins is known as a form player and when she plays herself into rhythm, she can beat even the best in the sport. That may be the one thing Rybakina has to guard against.

Elena Rybakina vs Danielle Collins H2H – Stat of the Match

The series between these two stands at 2-1 to the Kazakh. Rybakina has won a pair of three-setters, while Collins won in a pair of tiebreaks for her lone victory.

Oddly enough, the two Rybakina wins required a deciding set, but she won each of those matches by a margin of five or six games. It really does illustrate my earlier point about this matchup perfectly.

Collins Is able to hang with anyone when her game is working. The problem is, it’s tough for her to sustain that top level for more than a set at a time. Rybakina’s power is much more easy and hits with much more margin for error. The result? More dominant sets when she does win them.

Karolina Pliskova vs Camila Osorio Prediction: Tour Veteran Undervalued Indoors

Pick: Pliskova to win
Best Odds: 1.80
Bookmaker: bet365
Stakes: 6/10

Odds as at 9:00 am UK Time on February 8th, 2024. Odds may now differ.

Go with our tip at bet365I’ll keep this short and sweet. Pliskova is one of the better servers out there, playing on a fairly quick surface indoors against an underpowered opponent who has improved on hard courts but is still a more natural clay courter.

The fact is we’re getting the better hardcourt player who is more likely to dictate play and should generate the majority of pressure on return at an implied win percentage of just 55.5%. I’ll take that bet every time.

Read on for more Expert Insights.

Karolina Pliskova Recent Form

I’m not sure if the market is seeing a 2-3 record and making the assumption that Pliskova is vulnerable or what, but I can tell you, this price – regardless of the outcome – is an insult to the 31-year-old.

Look at her losses more closely. She lost a three-set match to Jelena Ostapenko, a player with two titles already in 2024 and who has only lost to one player herself. Another loss came against Rybakina, one of the best three or four players in the world on this surface. The final loss to Katerina Siniakova was a bad one, but that’s the only bad loss of the season.

Her first-rounder was tough against Sinja Kraus, but as we covered last week, the Austrian has an explosive game that should be rewarded indoors. Tomorrow’s opponent does not.

Camila Osorio Recent Form

Osorio has been okay to start her 2024 campaign, but it’s hard to really praise her results, seeing as she hasn’t really played anyone of significance. She has close wins against some middling competition and her losses weren’t to anyone spectacular either.

She’s got an incredible work ethic, elite speed and defends extremely well, but that’s about all she does and those attributes aren’t exactly the ones that lead to success on a quicker indoor hard court.

She’ll need to hope for a lower first-serve percentage from Pliskova and for her return game to be in tip-top form on the day in order to have a chance to pull off the upset.

Karolina Pliskova vs Camila Osorio H2H – Stat of the Match

These two haven’t met in the past, and I’m not sure what is keeping this price point so close.

There aren’t any injury concerns, as Pliskova noted herself in her post-match interview from the first round that now she feels much better physically as she looks to climb back up the rankings.

From a statistical standpoint, Pliskova has a better hold plus break percentage over the last year on hard courts, all while playing tougher tournaments and players. That’s evidenced by her blended hard court elo rating being nearly 100 points higher.

SAFER GAMBLING

At bettingexpert, we always take a safe approach to gambling. We’ll never bet more than we can afford or chase losses. For more advice, head to our Safer Gambling hub.

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