Analysis for Pennetta-Spears (Tokyo)

Head-to-head record 0:0

California-born Abigail Spears will meet experienced Italian Flavia Pennetta in the second round of Tokyo tournament. American player has had great success on the USTA Pro Circuit during her career, winning plenty of titles in both singles and doubles. She was considered to be a new American prodigy and many tennis experts saw the big future ahead of her. She performed pretty well on ITF circuit winning 5 tournaments in singles and 10 in doubles. 2005 was her best year and she was close to top 50 after she had reached the third round at Aussie Open. But she suddenly started to pine and her carrer has been fading since 2005. She was plagued by several injuries and her self-confidence fell as down as it could. But she is still a player with big talent and potential. She just needs to find the new motivation and win several matches in a row. She is definitely able to crack top 100 again. Her agressive style of play is exploitable on rapid surfaces and she has been showing some signs of improvement lately. Her YTD balance is 22-24 but she was pretty convincing in Asia coming through the qualifiers in all tournaments she has played (Bejing, Seoul and Tokyo) and she actually won 11 out of her last 13 matches. She had an easy work in the first round here in Tokyo as she destroyed another qualifier Yonemura. Abigail has a solid serve and we believe she is not without chance against opponents such as Pennetta. Italian player is a pure claycourter and her style of play is all about moving. Her serve is breakable and if Spears makes her best, she can play a tight match with Pennetta. Italian player is currently in a solid form but her overall YTD results aren´t impressive and her record is 28-25. We think that odds above 4 are worth trying here.