Liudmila Samsonova is the third favorite to win the 2023 WTA Elite Trophy heading into Thursday's action. She will face Lin Zhu at the Zhuhai tennis event. Zhu, who won her first match at the event over Veronika Kudermetova, is also on the radar to win the trophy this weekend. This upcoming match will be a round-robin match in the tournament. Zhu will be eyeing a spot in the semifinals with a victory. My Samsonova vs Zhu prediction is that the latter will win over 9.5 games in this upcoming match.
Order of Play: Right-click/Open in the New Tab to check match times: subject to change
2023 WTA Zhuhai To Win Outright (bet365)
The betting odds heading into Thursday are below. The tournament is organized into four groups, with one semifinalist emerging from each group of three.
Zhu, Samsonova, and Kudermetova share a group. If Zhu beats Samsonova on Thursday, then it will render the upcoming Samsonova vs Kudermetova match meaningless. In short, Samsonova vs Zhu is an elimination match for both Samsonova and Kudermetova.
Qinwen Zheng +275
Daria Kasatkina +450
Liudmila Samsonova +550
Caroline Garcia +550
Beatriz Haddad Maia +700
Jelena Ostapenko +800
Barbora Krejcikova +1200
Lin Zhu +1200
Veronika Kudermetova +1800
Donna Vekic +5000
Liudmila Samsonova vs Lin Zhu Head-to-Head Series
These two players have not met in a tour-level match. However, they did meet in a qualifying draw in 2019 in Dubai. Zhu won that match in straight sets. But the match took place at a time when Samsonova was still developing.
On short-term form, the only highlight that Zhu has recently is her win over Kudermetova earlier this week. Zhu had a very disappointing Asian hard-court swing prior to that. She went out in three events in China this month, all in her first match. Furthermore, she did not win a set in any of those matches.
She did play well in an event in Osaka in September. Also, Zhu eliminated Victoria Azarenka from the Flushing Meadows draw late in the North American summer as a near 3 to 1 underdog. Bettors will have to assume that Zhu feels renewed for the current event in Zhuhai.
Samsonova has been strong lately. She was in the Montreal final back in the summer, a tournament where she beat Qinwen Zheng, Aryna Sabalenka, and Elena Rybakina, among others. Samsonova also took a set off of Madison Keys at the US Open, which was hard to do this season. Recently, Samsonova won five matches at the WTA Beijing event, which included wins over talented players. She could be heading toward the Top Ten if she maintains her level of play.
The Draw: Right-click/Open in the New Tab for the draw for the 2023 WTA Elite Trophy
Samsonova vs Zhu Prediction: Zhu wins OVER 9.5 games
Samsonova has certainly caught everyone's attention with her stellar play. She is -400 to beat Zhu on Thursday (bet365). Bettors will have to count on Zhu to play better than normal given the occasion. My recommendation is to take her to win OVER 9.5 games at odds of -120.
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