Aryna Sabalenka vs Katie Boulter Prediction – Tennis Picks 10-03-2023

Top seed Aryna Sabalenka will face British No. 1 Katie Boulter in the second round of the 2023 China Open in Beijing. The match will be played on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.

Aryna Sabalenka won her first match as a freshly-minted World No. 1 on Sunday. She obliterated a resurgent Sofia Kenin 6-1, 6-2, and in the process, got revenge for her loss to the American back in Rome earlier this season. The Belarusian has been the WTA’s best player this season, performing consistently at high-profile events and comfortably leading the charts in this year’s race. She’ll be the odds-on favorite to win her second-round clash against Katie Boulter.

Katie Boulter, for her part, needed to qualify for the China Open main draw and was stretched to three sets in her opening match against fellow qualifier Magdalena Frech. It was a topsy-turvy affair for the most part, but Boulter’s aggressive return game proved decisive. She converted seven of her 13 break points to run away with the match. It’s been a welcome return to form for Boulter who reached the third round of the US Open and broke into the Top 50 for the first time before she suffered a wobble at last week’s Ningbo Open. A first-round shocker to Vera Zvonareva sent her ranking tumbling by six spots. Let’s see if she’s got a shot in this seemingly mission-impossible task on paper.

This will be the third career meeting between Aryna Sabalenka and Katie Boulter. The Belarusian won both meetings in the head-to-head including their most notable clash at Wimbledon two years ago when Boulter came within a set from the upset. But Sabalenka is a vastly different player this year, having cut down the errors behind her serve which has been a major upgrade. By contrast, Boulter looked extremely shaky on serve in her match against Magdalena Frech. She faced as many as 15 break points, and you would fancy someone of Sabalenka’s caliber to have a better conversion rate than the Pole if she ends up fashioning a myriad of chances, which looks like the order of the day here.