Tennis acca tips: Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff to get back to winning ways at Eastbourne
- James Richardson
- 26 June 2023
Planet Sport offers up six leads for your tennis accumulator on Tuesday, June 27 with matches from Eastbourne and Mallorca.
It may be the week before Wimbledon but plenty of top players are turning out this week either as a final tune-up or in pursuit of rankings points and prize money.
There is WTA action at Eastbourne and Bad Homburg this week, while the ATP Tour also has a stop at Eastbourne alongside another event in Mallorca.
Here we zero in on six matches and pick the potential winner.
The WTA 500 event at Eastbourne has the highest profile of all and has attracted a star-studded field.
WTA Eastbourne: Petra Kvitova vs Jelena Ostapenko | Pick: Kvitova
WTA Eastbourne: Bernarda Pera vs Coco Gauff | Pick: Gauff
WTA Eastbourne: Jessica Pegula vs Qinwen Zheng | Pick: Pegula
ATP Eastbourne: Mikael Ymer vs Nicolas Jarry | Pick: Ymer
ATP Mallorca: Christopher Eubanks vs Ben Shelton | Pick: Shelton
ATP Mallorca: Lloyd Harris vs Roman Safiullin | Pick: Safiullin
WTA Eastbourne: Petra Kvitova vs Jelena Ostapenko
By a curious quirk of the Eastbourne draw, Petra Kvitova and Jelena Ostapenko, titlists last week will face each other in the opening round of this week's event.
Kvitova leads the head to head between the two players having won six of their ten meetings down the years.
While both players can lay claim to enjoying turning out on grass, it is Kvitova who has the more impressive pedigree.
Kvitova and Ostapenko have evenly split their two meetings on grass so this could be a very tight one.
WTA Eastbourne: Bernarda Pera vs Coco Gauff
An all American clash that promises fireworks at Eastbourne sees Bernarda Pera out to avenge her loss to Coco Gauff at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Gauff has just taken on a new coach and might look ripe for an upset but the level of her play was not reflected in her results last week and she is improving on grass.
Pera is 8/11 over her career on grass and she has been around for a lot longer than Gauff who already has more wins on the surface with 16 to her name.
Both players suffered second round exits in their respective outings last week with Gauff being dumped out of Berlin and Pera from the Birmingham Classic
WTA Eastbourne: Jessica Pegula vs Qinwen Zheng
Jessica Pegula might struggle to see the value of her seeding at Eastbourne given the tough draw she has been handed.
However, expect that to inspire the stubborn American to greater heights as she chases grass court form ahead of another bif for Major glory.
Zheng is a handy player and a rising star worth tracking but with just six matches on grass behind her she could struggle.
Pegula has lost the only WTA Tour match she has played since the French Open but again that should only serve as motivation for the world No 4.
ATP Eastbourne: Mikael Ymer vs Nicolas Jarry
Fiery young Swede Mikael Ymer has a chance to pull off something of an upset over Nicolas Jarry in their second ATP Tour-level meeting.
Jarry won the only prior meeting between these two when a very young Ymer was humbled on home soil in Bastad.
While Jarry still sports a rankings advantage over Ymer, the young man has improved as a player immeasurably since that clash.
Ymer will need to secure his first win on grass to make good on his potential to cause an upset.
ATP Mallorca: Christopher Eubanks vs Ben Shelton
This all-American clash is one that sees the upstart 20-year-old Ben Shelton take on journeyman Christopher Eubanks.
Shelton has had little trouble in putting Eubanks away in their two previous meetings.
Eubanks experience on grass is the only factor that suggests he might be able to hang with Shelton, who has been tipped as a future big title winner.
Both of their previous meetings came at Challenger Tour level and this will be their first meeting on the full ATP Tour.
ATP Mallorca: Lloyd Harris vs Roman Safiullin
Lloyd Harris and Roman Safiullin find themselves in similar positions as they seek to re-establish their presence on the ATP Tour after struggled with injury.
Both men have also come through qualifying to reach the main draw at Mallorca and out their respective three-match streaks on the line in the second round of the main draw.
Harris and Safiullin have both had a hard time getting into main draws on the ATP Tour this season.
The factor that splits them is Safiullin's pedigree on grass and while Harris has been in the top 40 before and the Russian hasn't their current rankings disparity tells the story of where they are at right now.
