China Open 2024: Karolina Muchova vs Jaqueline Cristian preview, head-to-head, prediction, and pick
Match Details
Fixture: Karolina Muchova vs Jaqueline Cristian
Date: TBD
Tournament: China Open 2024
Round: Third Round (Round of 32)
Venue: National Tennis Center, Beijing, China
Category: WTA 1000
Surface: Hard
Prize Money: $8,955,610
Live Telecast: USA - Tennis Channel | UK - Sky Sports | Canada - TSN
Karolina Muchova vs Jaqueline Cristian preview
Karolina Muchova and Jaqueline Cristian will lock horns in a surprise third-round encounter at the 2024 China Open.
Muchova, who came into the tournament fresh off the US Open semifinal finish, has steamrolled through the opening couple of rounds. She has dropped just six games in her two wins over Yue Yuan and Anna Blinkova and will look to keep the momentum going.
The Czech has not played a full season, having undergone wrist surgery in February. She has, however, managed to put together a decent 14-4 win-loss for the season and has been playing well of late.
Cristian, meanwhile, has had an up-and-down season. Having made a poor start to the season, she came into her own during the clay season and made deep runs at Charleston and Madrid. Back-to-back quarterfinals followed in Iasi and Palermo, but her hardcourt results had left a lot to be desired.
Things turned around for the Romanian in Beijing, with her scoring big wins over Anna Bondar and reigning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova. The latter was her first top-10 scalp.
Karolina Muchova vs Jaqueline Cristian head-to-head
Muchova leads Cristian in their current head-to-head 1-0, but the two have not played each other since 2018.
Karolina Muchova vs Jaqueline Cristian odds
(Odds will be added once they're available)
Karolina Muchova vs Jaqueline Cristian prediction
The third-round encounter will pit Jaqueline Cristian’s power-packed groundstrokes against Karolina Muchova’s all-court game.
The Romanian likes to go after every ball and that strategy has paid off on the quick Beijing hardcourts. She has been able to push her opponents onto the backfoot. Her serve has also worked well as she logged nine aces in her last match against Krejcikova.
Against Muchova, she will need to rely on those weapons even more as she is not known to give her opponents too many free points.
The Czech has also been extremely aggressive on return, breaking her opponents on 10 occasions in two short matches.
Both women will come into the contest high on confidence given their recent exploits, but Muchova’s better all-court skills and higher experience should give her the edge.
Prediction: Muchova to win in three sets