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Horse Racing Greet Minnen vs Jaqueline Cristian Open Capfinances Rouen Metropole Expert Tip: Indoor Expert to Progress to Semis
Greet Minnen vs Jaqueline Cristian (Open Capfinances Rouen Metropole): Friday, October 13th
Yet another loss from a promising position this week on our women’s previews, as Mirra Andreeva fell apart after winning the opening set against Leylah Fernandez in Hong Kong.
For our final WTA preview of the week, let’s break down Greet Minnen vs Jaqueline Cristian from the Open Capfinances Rouen Metropole.
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In this article:
- Greet Minnen vs Jaqueline Cristian Expert Tip
- Greet Minnen Recent Form
- Jaqueline Cristian Recent Form
- Greet Minnen vs Jaqueline Cristian H2H Stat of the Match
- Gamble Responsibly
Greet Minnen vs Jaqueline Cristian Expert Tip
Simply put, the experience and pedigree on indoor hard courts and the gulf between these two in terms of the effectiveness of their first serves heavily tilt this one in Minnen’s favour for me.
It’s no guarantee and she does have a vulnerability or two to exploit, but in the range of all possible outcomes, Minnen winning this one in relatively straightforward fashion is the most likely.
Odds as at 1:15 am UK Time on October 13th, 2023. Odds may now differ.
Read on for more expert insights.
Greet Minnen Recent Form
Don’t look now, but Minnen has been on an absolute tear on hard courts in 2023.
With her game boasting a powerful first serve and big forehand, it would make sense that she would prefer the quicker courts on tour. Factor in the footspeed not being the greatest, and she’s also a player that greatly benefits from shorter points – another perk of quicker surfaces.
She began the season dipping down to the ITF Tour to play indoors and absolutely crushed her competition for the most part over the course of those two months. That may not be recent form, but I did want to bring it up, because it serves as a decent comparable for this level as a 125K tournament. She does tend to be one of the best players you’ll find in these fields.
Further, in that stretch earlier in the year, the players that beat Minnen include Jodie Burrage, Oceane Dodin and Clara Tauson. All three are firmly in the power-centric category of player. Cristian? Not so much.
As for her most recent play, Minnen has looked real strong during the hard-court summer, qualifying and making the third round in New York, reaching the final in Kozerki and most recently capitalising on the quick courts in Guangzhou to reach the semifinals there.
This week, she’s yet to drop a set en route to the quarterfinals and I don’t see her slowing down on Friday.
Jaqueline Cristian Recent Form
Cristian was pretty successful during that indoor hard court run in the winter and spring months in her own right, but not quite to the point that Minnen was.
She has won 10 fewer matches indoors this year, while still having four defeats, and her style isn’t as ready made for success on quicker courts.
She’s a bit more of a counterpuncher and defensive baseliner with the ability to flatten out her groundstrokes from time to time, rather than a brute force aggressor on serve and from the baseline.
This has tended to make her an all-courter, but it also means that she’s more susceptible to being broken than someone like Minnen.
We also haven’t seen her play a strong server yet this week, as she beat another lighter hitter in Celine Naef in three sets and needed a tiebreak win before rolling through Lucrezia Stefanini in the second set.
The big concern for Cristian here is that she’ll be facing pressure in every other service game, while being far less likely to apply pressure on return herself.
Greet Minnen vs Jaqueline Cristian H2H – Stat of the Match
The only head-to-head meeting between these two actually came on a quicker court in Australia in 2022 and it was Cristian that managed to snag the win there.
That means she will be familiar with the gameplan needed to potentially beat Minnen, but I’m still sticking with the better player on a quicker court here and I’m not going to be pushed off my handicap based on a one-match sample size.
As for the success for Minnen, it isn’t exclusive to the lower levels, nor is it a mirage.
Over the last 52 weeks her hold plus break percentage comes out to an incredibly impressive 116% on hard courts at WTA tournaments.
That’s over 20% higher than what Cristian has managed playing at the top level in the same time span on hard courts. That is a tough gap to expect to close.
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