Bencic vs Ostapenko Prediction 13 January 2025

Is the match between Belinda Bencic and Jelena Ostapenko one of the most interesting in the first round of the Australian major? Definitely yes. Throughout their time on the tour, the ladies have exchanged victories, which was taken into account in our prediction, based on all the essentials.

Belinda Bencic

Bencic recently returned to the tour from maternity leave, which so far has not led to fantastic results. In December, Belinda was a step away from triumphing at the Angers Challenger (top-2), suffering an unpleasant defeat to Alicia Parks. In January, she had a decent performance in Adelaide (top-16), losing to Liudmila Samsonova in uncompromising battles. Sooner or later, the tennis player will inevitably return to the top-100 of the world ranking, as her motivation and physical condition are completely fine.

Jelena Ostapenko

Ostapenko had a respectable performance in Melbourne a couple of years ago (quarterfinals), but now she is far from those conditions. Elena finished last season early due to an abdominal muscle strain, marking five consecutive losses. A few days ago, the Latvian was disappointingly defeated by Madison Keys, experiencing serious problems with her serve (seven breaks, seven double faults, and less than half of the second serve points won). The athlete again started making a lot of mistakes on easy points, which indicates a mediocre emotional state.

Editorial Prediction

In this match, Ostapenko must put up colossal resistance against Bencic. Belinda is still not ideally prepared for such powerful challenges, and we expect her to struggle significantly against the tenacious Jelena. A victory for the representative of Latvia with a handicap of +3.5 is the preferred option for the match.