tennis | Thursday, October 13, 2022 7:37 AM

Thursday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Cluj-Napoca, Ysaline Bonaventure vs Anhelina Kalinina

Jon Reid

Ysaline Bonaventure vs Anhelina Kalinina Best Bet: Thursday, October 13th

A lovely match from Anna Bondar, who was positively in control of that match outside of the first few games and a shaky game to serve it out in the second set. Her forehand was the biggest weapon on the court and she was more controlled from the baseline, as expected.

For Thursday, we stick with the Transylvania Open in Romania for the fourth straight day to take a look at the matchup pitting Ysaline Bonaventure against Anhelina Kalinina for a spot in the quarterfinals.

In this article:

Ysaline Bonaventure vs Anhelina Kalinina Preview
Ysaline Bonaventure vs Anhelina Kalinina Best Bet

Ysaline Bonaventure vs Anhelina Kalinina Preview

October 13th, 13:00 UK Time

A few reasons to like the big-serving southpaw from Belgium in this one.

For starters, Bonaventure is something of an indoor hard court specialist. Despite a slower start to the season, she’s looked strong in the last few weeks reaching the quarterfinals in Tallinn as a qualifier with underdog wins over the likes of Shelby Rogers and Jil Teichmann, before losing in three sets as a 5.07-odds outsider to Anett Kontaveit. This week, she’s once again qualified for a WTA event and has reached the second round.

It makes sense as well. She’s won two of every three professional matches she’s contested in her career indoors, and has a big first serve and ability to put points away quickly. She can mask her primary weakness in her mobility to boot.

As for Kalinina, 2022 has been a rather injury-plagued season. She retired from her lone match in the month of July, and after a tough month of August (she won just one main draw match), she withdrew prior to her second-round encounter with Petra Kvitova at the U.S. Open.

Fast forward to this week, where she played her first match since that withdrawal, and after a lengthy 6-3 first set win against Eugenie Bouchard, moved on thanks to the Canaidan’s retirement. The key here is something she said in her on-court interview afterwards. When asked about the intensity of the first set, she made it clear that she was worried about her own ability to finish the match. While players sometimes exaggerate for effect, considering this was her first match back, I’m inclined to believe her.

Now, going up against a strong indoor player in decent form who can slug from the baseline, I’m wondering if she can hang with Bonaventure for the entirety of the match.

Ysaline Bonaventure vs Anhelina Kalinina Best Bet

With Bonaventure already incredibly competent on the surface and in good form, I was of the opinion that she should be a favourite in this matchup even without potential endurance concerns from the Ukrainian.

With Kalinina clearly still struggling to keep her top level for any sustained period of time, I’m more than happy to back the Belgian here to come through to another indoor hard court quarterfinal at a price that would indicate these two are contesting a dead-even match.