Damien Kayat previews Elena Rybakina vs Katie Boulter and Beatriz Haddad Maia vs Sorana Cirstea in selected 3rd Round matches of the Wimbledon Championships, on the 8th of July 2023.
2023 WTA Tour
Grand Slam Tennis
Wimbledon Championships
All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
Selected 3rd Round Matches – 8th June
Elena Rybakina 2/13 | Katie Boulter 21/5
Elena Rybakina seems to have shrugged off the virus that saw her withdraw from the French Open and threatened her Wimbledon title defence. She started sluggishly this year, dropping the first set in her first-round match with Shelby Rogers.
But she stormed back to book her place in the 2nd round with a brutal display of serving superiority. And she looked even better against the crafty Alize Cornet, hitting an imposing 36 winners to down the capable Frenchwoman.
Rybakina has fast emerged as one of the most feared big-match players in women’s tennis, taking her place alongside Swiatek and Sabalenka in a new ‘Big Three’. Her run to Wimbledon victory last year was pretty leftfield.
But she backed that up with a run to the final of this year’s Aussie Open. She also reached back-to-back finals at the Sunshine Double (winning at Indian Wells). She defied further expectations with a WTA 1000 victory on the red clay in Rome. Her massive serve and unflappable demeanor are enough to give any player nightmares.
Brit Katie Boulter is the polar opposite of the unassuming Rybakina. Once dubbed the new glamour girl of women’s tennis, Boulter has perhaps lacked the single-minded focus necessary to reach the very top of the women’s game.
She memorably upset Karolina Pliskova en route to last year’s Wimbledon 3rd round. But there have been sings of life in the Boulter game this year. This started at the lower-tier, where she won the season-opening Canberra International. She had some solid ITF showings before the tour switched to grass.
And that is where her season really came to life. She became the British Number One after a semi-final showing at the Surbiton Trophy (which is probably more an indictment of Emma Radacanu than anything else). She then won her maiden WTA title at the Nottingham Open.
She would lose her next two grass-court matches but she seems to have rediscovered that Nottingham form at SW19. She eased past Gavrilova in the first match before a topsy-turvy win over Tomova. But this next challenge will be a significant step up in class for the Brit.
Verdict: Rybakina to win in straight sets at 4/7
This will be the first competitive match between these two. There’s just no way I can envisage this match going any other way: this could actually be a bloodbath. Rybakina is serving brilliantly and should steamroll the Brit.
Beatriz Haddad Maia 3/4 | Sorana Cirstea 21/20
Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia has had to deal with more than a few setbacks in her career. She has suffered a litany of injuries and was handed a doping suspension in 2019. It really felt like the talented Brazilian may never reach her true potential.
But her star has risen dramatically over the course of the last year or so. And it all began on the grass. She won her first two WTA titles with back-to-back victories at last year’s Nottingham and Birmingham Opens. She would then go on to reach her maiden WTA 1000 at the Canadian Open.
And she has really rammed home last year’s breakthrough form with an extremely consistent 2023 campaign, reaching at least the quarterfinal stage in six events. This included a marathon run to the semi-finals of the French Open (which was actually the first time she has ever gone past the 2nd round of a Slam).
She has looked a bit ropey at Wimbledon, needing three sets to overcome both Putintseva and Cristian. She tends to go for her shots and can be quite erratic. She will need to control her tempo a bit better if she wants to remain in and around the top 10 in the world.
This has been a rollercoaster of a season for veteran Romanian Sorana Cirstea. She was 2-6 in tour-level matches leading into the prestigious Sunshine Double. But then she suddenly burst into life, reaching the quarterfinals at Indian Wells before a remarkable semi-final run in Miami.
That performance in Miami was her first WTA 1000 semi-final since 2013. She then won a WTA 125 event in Catalonia before the well suddenly dried. But the nuggety Cirstea has rediscovered her groove at SW19, beating Tatjana Maria in three sets prior to her upset win against Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.
She showed plenty of guts against the erratic Ostapenko, coming from a set down to reach the 3rd round. Can she finally make the 4th round here at the 5th time of asking?
Verdict: Cirstea to win in three at 29/10
Cirstea hold a commanding 4-1 head-to-head advantage over the Brazilian. That included an epic three-set victory at this year’s Dubai Duty Free Championships.
This should be a wild clash between two players who like to swing for the fences. Cirstea clearly understands how to contain the big-hitting lefty and I think I would bank on that head-to-head experience here.
