Robson, Laura (GBR) - Cirstea, Sorana-Mihaela (ROU)

Victoria Mboko - a 19-year-old from Canada, plays very solid tennis despite her young age, as if she were an experienced 27-30-year-old player. She has great talent and is probably the most progressive tennis player at the moment, along with Jovic. In the past, Mboko has played two matches in a row of three sets against M. Andreeva and Rybakina, which is kind of a drawback, but when considering the level of her opponents and Ostapenko, it should be a pleasure for Canada to play with her, as her endurance is outstanding. Even towards the end of the third set last night, she stood confidently on her feet as if nothing had phased her. Ostapenko makes too many mistakes and dislikes long rallies or playing in hot conditions. She lacks stability and her endurance level is low.

Although Mboko appears to be physically stronger, she has definitely strengthened psychologically compared to last year and has overcome very strong opponents during her period, but this time I will go against logic, because sometimes in tennis you don't need to search too much for new things every day. Ostapenko has a lot more experience, although her previous opponents can also boast about it, but she had very difficult matches back to back, which cannot be said about Ostapenko. The downside is that the Latvian doesn't like long rallies, she tries to end points quickly (with powerful shots), which often leads her to make mistakes in crucial moments, but when she's on, she's on and causes problems for every opponent. Overall, Ostapenko is hard to predict, she can lose to lower-ranked players, but when she catches a good wave, she goes far.

All in all, I have two predictions hoping for Ostapenko's success, because she plays very well in the Doha tournament, just like she did last year when she made it all the way to the final, eventually losing to Anisimova.