Katerina Siniakova and Shelby Rogers will meet on Monday, August 23, in the 1/16 finals of the 2021 WTA Cleveland Championship. It will mark only their third meeting of their careers, and the first since 2017, when Siniakova beat the American tennis player 2-0 at Billie Jean King Cup.
Katerina Siniakova vs Shelby Rogers
When: Monday, August 23 – 17:30 EDT
Where: Jacobs Pavilion in Cleveland, Ohio, US
Weather: Sunny, 27°C
These two met only twice in their careers, with Siniakova winning both times in straight sets. However, both of those matches were played on clay, while their next clash will happen on hard court.
On top of that, the most recent of those two duels happened in 2017. A lot has changed since, but does this mean Rogers should hope for a win today? Let’s see!
Siniakova Not Doing Great on the Hardcourt
This year, Siniakova’s record is 19-14, which isn’t that bad. However, it could’ve been even better if she decided to stay away from hardcourt tournaments. Her record on this surface in 2021 is 6-8.
In comparison, Siniakova’s clay-court record is 7-4, while on grass, she’s won 6 times this year, with only two defeats.
In fact, throughout her career, she’s been doing much better on clay than on the hardcourts. For example, she has finished three of her past seven seasons with a negative hard court record, so it’s safe to say that Siniakova might not enjoy playing on hard courts too much.
Siniakova’s most recent hardcourt adventure happened at WTA Montreal, where she lost in Round 3 to Sara Sorribes Tormo. She did, however, pull off a major surprise, beating the #5 seed Garbine Muguruza in Round 2.
Rogers Looking to Improve Her Form
Shelby Rogers lost to Belinda Bencic in the second round of the WTA Cincinnati last week. The Olympic gold winner beat her in straight sets, but the first one was decided by a tiebreaker, showing that Rogers is good enough to compete with the best.
She reached R2 of WTA Cincinnati after beating Danielle Rose Collins, in which the WTA #27 withdraw after going down 0-1. Rogers’ win over Collins marked her first victory following three consecutive defeats at three different tournaments.
Although Rogers lost four of her past five matches, she has had a solid season so far. In fact, her record in 2021 is 20-18, with most of those wins happening on the hard surface. Hardcourt tournaments like WTA Melbourne and the Australian Open were where she has managed solid showings, reaching quarter-final and R4 respectively.
Rogers’ most recent title happened in 2020 when she won the W100 Midland, another hardcourt tournament. Actually, she has won all five of her career tournament titles on hard courts.
Katerina Siniakova vs Shelby Rogers Betting Pick
Even though the stats don’t show it, Rogers has been playing pretty good tennis in 2021 and seems a bit underrated. She is currently five spots below her career-high ranking (40th), and it would be fair to say that she will improve her position if she can keep her wheels spinning.
Winning the WTA Cleveland will surely be enough to achieve that feat; however, a deep run would do the job as well. It’s fair to assume that Rogers will be motivated to deliver, and that’s exactly what she’ll need against the favored Siniakova.
At 2.10, we have to side with Rogers to claim her first head-to-head victory against the Czech tennis star, on the surface that clearly isn’t Siniakova’s favorite.
Pick: Shelby Rogers to win – 2.10 Unibet
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