Jessica Pegula vs Ashlyn Krueger Prediction – Tennis Picks 10-12-2023

Top seed Jessica Pegula will take on compatriot Ashlyn Krueger in the round of 16 at the 2023 Korea Open in Seoul. The match will be played on Thursday, October 12, 2023.

Jessica Pegula is playing in her mother’s city of birth this week. It’s her first trip to Seoul since 2019 and made a winning start to her Korea Open campaign with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Viktoria Hruncakova. Pegula needed just 70 minutes to round off a very good performance against a former Top 50 player who has earned a fair share of shock wins this year. Pegula landed 47% of first-serve points but still tallied 87% of points won (21/24), and showed her class behind her reliable return to break the Slovakian five times during the match.

Ashlyn Krueger, for her part, continued her recent wave of momentum in Seoul. The 19-year-old captured her maiden WTA title in Osaka without dropping a set in mid-September. She was overwhelmed by accumulated fatigue in her next tournament in Tokyo where she lost in the first round, but appears to have recovered in the past couple of weeks. Krueger opened her account in Seoul with a thoroughly deserved victory over former Roland Garros semifinalist Nadia Podoroska, taking just an hour to power through to the second round. Krueger was largely aided by the Argentine’s serving woes as she could hardly buy a first or a second serve during the match, tallying 11 double faults and managing to hold just three times.

This should be an intriguing matchup between one of the USA’s top-performing players and a player who could be a stalwart in women’s tennis in the future. Krueger has a big-hitting style, very much in the Rybakina mold. A fast and pacey first serve and tends to count on her forehand approach shot to finish off points. She also moves well for a six-footer. There is enough reason to expect the American teenager to test her more established countrywoman. So we are looking at Krueger to cover the over 7.5 of her total games in the match at -132 (as she only needs to win eight games), which looks like the most feasible play for the underdog here, but Pegula should be winning this match.