[Pricehunter]

Startar vi väl en ny tråd med spel, frågor och funderingar för 2015 och all form av tennis.

Har spelat två spel:

I choose to go with one of my favorite players from 2014. Barbora. She really turned things around after Birmingham and Wimbledon last year and are now ranked 25 in the world, as her best ranking ever, she is looking forward to continue her form in 2015.

She is facing the 94 ranked RSA player Scheepers, who are going the opposite way, with a lot of 1R exists in 2014. She played decent on the clay courts as she made it to the final in Båstad and SF in Bogota and QF in Bad Gastein as best results, but all on the red dirt.

Even though their recent meetings are years ago, and not that actual, Barbora leads the h2h 3-1. And 2-1 in favor on hard courts for Barbora.

Barbara should have the better confidence here as Scheepers ended her 2014 with loosing 7 of 10 matches.

Barbora have 58% winning rate on HC last year with Scheepers only 39%.

Barbora are 9-1 in her last 10 matches against lower ranked players.

Scheepers are 1-9 in her last 10 matches against higher ranked players.

Barbora are 7-3 in her last 10 first round matches.

Scheepers are 2-8 in her 10 last first round matches.

Better player overall, better form and upcoming in 2014, and the statistics. I can’t see Scheepers doing to much harm in the long run in this match.

Given play for me!

Barbora in 2 or 3 sets.

Barbora – 1.54 @Pinnacle

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So, this first round opponent could have been better for Mona. As she is facing the upcoming player Konjuh. The Croatian born 1997 is a talented player but a bit inconsistent yet. She ended 2014 making it to minimum QF in her three last events (even if they were in ITF she won against some decent and higher ranked player).

Her biggest effort on the WTA came in Istanbul on hard last year, reaching SF from qualification. She won against Svitolina, Rybarikova and Pliskova before loosing to Vinci. So, we will see more from this talented girl currently ranked 93.

But the main issue for Mona is that she have been out for weeks ahead of this event with a torn ligament in her ankle. I don’t know how bad it is but looking at her pictures and text she can’t be 100% yet as she must have missed some week of preparations. I don’t even know if it is a good thing to play this event for her, we will see?

And as if that was not enough, she always seems to have a hard time flying, this is from her social media:

Mona Barthel
January 1 at 11:49pm
Happy New Year!
My year didn’t start so well. Caught something on the plane to New Zealand. Being sick and lying in bed
She is facing an though opponent as Konjuh actually have a 7-3 record of winning against even higher ranked players in her last 10 matches. Konjuh really ended her last season with a bang and should be tricky for Mona here. Not fully fit from her ankle, she would not be 100% even if she had not been sick after the travel to Auckland.

In Konjuh we trust. She is currently 1.66 at Pinnacle and I choose to play.

Konjuh – 1.73 @ Nordicbet