San Diego Open 2022: Maria Sakkari vs Donna Vekic preview, head-to-head, prediction, odds and pick

Fifth seed Maria Sakkari will face Donna Vekic in the first round of the San Diego Open on Tuesday.

Sakkari produced some good performances at the start of the season, most notably reaching the final of the Indian Wells Open. However, her level has suffered a dip over the past few months.

The Greek did manage to reach the final of the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma but lost to Egypt’s Mayar Sherif. She competed at the AGEL Open in Ostrava last week but suffered an opening-round defeat to Alycia Parks.

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Vekic has had a disappointing season so far, with her most notable outings being quarterfinal runs at the Birmingham Classic and the Tallinn Open. In the latter, she beat Maileen Nuudi and Zhang Shuai to reach the last eight before losing 6-4, 6-1 to Belinda Bencic.

Vekic then entered the qualifying rounds of the San Diego Open and started her campaign by beating Elizabeth Mandlik 6-4, 6-3. The 26-year-old then faced another American in Lauren Davis.

Vekic beat the 29-year-old 7-6(3), 6-4 to book her place in the main draw of the San Diego Open.

Maria Sakkari vs Donna Vekic prediction

Although Sakkari has been in poor form of late, she will enter this first-round encounter as the favorite.

Sakkari has a decent serve and uses her powerful groundstrokes to win most of her points. She is an aggressive player and will look to outmuscle her opponent from the baseline. However, she will have to keep an eye on her unforced errors, which have been unusually high of late.

Vekic’s serve is stronger than the Greek’s and it can fetch her a lot of free points. However, the Croat is susceptible to double-faults and will have to keep those to a minimum.

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The Croat has a positive head-to-head record against Sakkari but the latter has improved substantially since their last meeting in 2020.

If Sakkari can find her feet early and settle into the match, she should be able to overcome the challenge posed by Vekic.