Marie Bouzkova vs Hailey Baptiste Prediction, Stats, Form, H2H, April 4th

The final preview for Thursday also comes from the WTA’s Copa Colsanitas Zurich in Bogota. It’s Marie Bouzkova vs Hailey Baptiste. Bouzkova is favored to win at 1.48 odds. The handicap is 3.5 games and the total games line is 20.5.

For more tennis tips for Thursday’s action, visit our Expert Insights section.

Bouzkova vs Baptiste Prediction

• Bouzkova vs Baptiste Prediction: Bouzkova -3.5 Games
• Best Odds: 1.91
• Bookmaker: Pinnacle
• Stakes: 4/10

Odds as of 1:30 am UK Time on April 4th, 2024. Odds may now differ.

If there’s one thing that this tournament has proven to us, it’s that the ability to keep the ball in play means far more than the ability to dictate play or hit through either the forehand or backhand wings.

Outlasting one’s opponent in long, drawn-out matches has also come in handy.

Those are both characteristics that favor Bouzkova in a big way relative to her American counterpart in this one. She just dispatched a bigger server and more powerful player than herself who wasn’t the swiftest mover in her first-round clash against Rebecca Marino, and she did so with relative ease. Our Bouzkova vs Baptiste prediction is for Bouzkova to cover the -3.5 game handicap.

Marie Bouzkova Recent Form

It was a smart decision to come down to Bogota for Bouzkova, since this event not only rewards consistency, defensive play, and athleticism – her calling cards – but also tends to put forth one of the weakest fields on the WTA calendar. She’s only managed to pick up four wins in 2024, with half of them coming in the opening week of the season.

Avoiding the tougher field in Charleston, with quicker conditions where players may be able to hit through her a bit more easily, was certainly the smart choice.

Now she’ll have to try and get through Baptiste, who certainly sports a well-rounded game, but who did have problems with errors in the opening round – so much so that she received a warning for audible obscenities and then a point penalty for racquet abuse.

Throw in the fact that she’s not nearly as fit as the Czech, and any match that does play relatively closely should shift in her favor.

Hailey Baptiste Recent Form

The American, on the other hand, has been at the other end of the form spectrum, though she’s been playing at the lower levels to try and build up her ranking. That has been a success, as she’s joined the top 100 and entered the week at a career-high of No. 96.

Baptiste reached the final in Morelia, Mexico, semis in Puerto Vallarta, and then the second round as a qualifier in Indian Wells (nearly beating Madison Keys at that stage).

Her time on the clay in elevated conditions hasn’t been as impressive, however, with a lopsided loss in San Luis Potosi to her fellow young American, Robin Montgomery, and then a close win against Tamara Zidansek, where both players were erratic at times with their forehands and Baptiste’s talent and variety allowed her to come through.

If she’s going to pull off the upset on Thursday, she’ll need to be more consistent, and more composed and keep her energy reserves up.

Marie Bouzkova vs Hailey Baptiste H2H – Stat of the Match

First career matchup between these two. We’ll have to see what the breakpoint generation looks like in this one. If Baptiste can keep up in that regard, she does have the bigger serve and may be able to find an extra hold or two. That is a big “if” though.

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