US Open: Petra Kvitova vs. Polona Hercog 8/31/21 Tennis Prediction

Tenth seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic will face Slovenian Polona Hercog in the First Round of the 2021 US Open. The match is scheduled to be played on Tuesday August 31st, 2021 at approximately 4:15pm EST.

Petra Kvitova begins her US Open campaign against Polona Hercog, a solid opponent and a fierce competitor. The Czech star has not been her consistent self over the past few seasons and will be hopping to make a deep run here in New York. The former world #2 still has the ability to compete at the Majors but one has to wonder if the belief is still there. Will she make a strong start here at the 2021 US Open and dispatch the Slovenian Hercog?

Petra Kvitova is the tenth seed here at the 2021 US Open and is currently ranked #11 in the WTA world rankings. She has been having an unusually inconsistent season which started well, but has since been disappointing. She has shown signs of life recently in the warm up events for this event and she will be hoping to continue that momentum into NEw York. She reached the Quarter-Finals in Cincinnati with some impressive wins over Madison Keys and Ons Jabeur, but then she had to retire with a stomach illness. Assuming that she is now 100% healthy she is considered the favorite here against her opponent Polona Hercog, an opponent that has never beaten her and she will be confident in her ability to get the win.

Polona Hercog is unseeded here at the 2021 US Open, and is ranked #86 on the WTA Tour. The Slovenian has shown flashes of quality throughout her career but has always struggled to achieve consistent results. She has been incredibly disappointing this year on hard courts, only winning two matches on the surface, which is a shocking statistic. Hercog is an incredibly athletic player who has shown flashes of her ability throughout her career but has always failed to be consistent. Hercog is more of a clay courter, so playing against a former Grand Slam champion on hard courts seems like a very difficult task. She is a very experienced player and is capable of solid tennis but she enters this match as teh big underdog and expectations are not high that she can do well here.

This is the third meeting between the two players, with Petra Kvitova winning the first two encounters. I am expecting a similar result here, as Polona Hercog has given us no indication that she is able to compete with the talented lefty on this surface. If this match was on clay then it may have been a bit more competitive, but I am expecting the big serving Kvitova to dominate this match from the baseline and she should win this match comfortably. Hercog won’t go down without a fight, but she simply doesn’t have the tools to be too competitive here. Kvitova will win in straight sets here and advance to the Second Round at the 2021 US Open.