Elena Rybakina vs Ajla Tomljanovic Prediction
Fourth seed Elena Rybakina will face Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic in the second round of the 2023 US Open. The match will be played on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.
Elena Rybakina needed just 84 minutes to record an emphatic opening win of the 2023 US Open. She lay waste to Ukranian Marta Kostyuk - a seemingly tough first-round match on paper against one of the dangerous floaters in the draw. Rybakina won 6-2, 6-1, putting to bed fears about a recurrence of the shoulder injury that forced her to retire from her last match in Cincinnati. Although she played with a Kinesio tape, the Kazakh tallied 75% first-serve points won and saved four of five break points on her serve. She also planted 26 winners in the match, at least seven more than Kostyuk to progress into the second round. This is already a better accomplishment for Rybakina than 12 months ago when she ignominiously lost her opening match to Clara Burel.
Ajla Tomljanovic made a winning return to tennis, playing her first match of the season on Monday. The Australian star played the role of a gatecrasher last year as she slayed Serena Williams in her final professional match en route to the quarterfinal. Unfortunately for Tomljanoivc, she couldn't build on that high point of her career after picking up a knee injury that needed complicated surgery and a slow recovery process. She missed three-thirds of the tennis calendar in 2023, and was emotional in the aftermath of her win over Panna Udvardy, winning that match 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to set up a showdown against fourth seed Elena Rybakina.
Beating Ajla Tomljanovic might feel like a good omen for Elena Rybakina. Last year, she defeated the Aussie in three sets in the Wimbledon quarterfinal and a few days later, she put the capstone by winning her first major title. While she enters this year's US Open a bit of an unknown and tennis fans not holding high hopes for her, Rybakina is slowly throwing cold water on those doubts. After a dominant win over Marta Kostyuk, fears of a shoulder injury can now be put to rest. Back the Kazakh to prevail here.
