Victoria Azarenka (12) meets Kateryna Kozlova in the first round of the 2021 Championships on Tuesday, June 29th 2021.
Will Kateryna Kozlova cause a big upset and make a big name for herself early on here in London, or will Victoria Azarenka be healthy enough to play her best and come out here ready to give it a real challenge in this tough side of the draw?
Kateryna Kozlova is in good form on grass recently, getting some good wins under her belt and making her way far into tournaments. This will help her get to her best and gain momentum coming into Wimbledon. Kozlova is not very well known, and she will use that as a good thing as her playing style will not be known much. However, she has to meet a tough and experienced opponent right from the start here in Azarenka and she has to play even better than she is used to if she wants to cause the upset.
Victoria Azarenka will want to keep her health in check here at Wimbledon as she has struggled a lot with injuries recently, so she will not want to waste much time on court in these early round matches. Azarenka will come out here knowing that to do that, she cannot take any opponent for granted and she will have to be ready to fight right from the start to ensure she is ready to save energy for later round matches where she will meet tough competition who will push her to her limits.
This is going to be the 1st meeting between both players, and I see this being a tight match in some instances just because Kozlova has been playing well. Kozlova will be swinging freely initially, however, once Azarenka finds her rhythm and gets on top of the match, she will then dictate play and I don’t think Kozlova has the composure to make a strong comeback against such an experienced opponent. Victoria will win and make her way to the second round here and give herself enough time to recover for her next match.