Analysis for Peng-Kutuzova (WTA Wimbledon)

Head-to-head record 0:0

Shuai Peng of China is a player we really admire for her attitude towards tennis and fighting spirit she has. She overcame a lot of injuries in her career and always managed to get back on the scene. At age 13, she was submitted to a heart surgery, a situation which she explains in the "Impossible is Nothing" campaign from Adidas. Her game is built upon hard-flat strokes generated by two hands on both sides. She hits the ball very cleanly, especially off her backhand. Her compact strokes allow her to change easily, and she likes to hit the ball down the line from both sides. Her weakness is her serve, with a ball toss that sometimes drifts too far to the left. Her movement is also not the quickest, and that can put her in defensive positions given limited reach when drawn out wide. She prefers hard courts and could have some problems on grass. Her 2008 season is one of the worst she ever had and with the record of 11-15, she has a lot to improve. Her opponent will be Ukrainian qualifier Victoriya Kutuzova. Kutuzova remains most notable for her results as a 14 year old. In her debut WTA maindraw event, in the Tier II event, in Los Angeles 2003, Kutuzova beat top 50 player, Lina Krasnoroutskaya, in the 1st round, and top 30 player, Alexandra Stevenson in her next match, before losing in the 3rd round to then world number 12, Ai Sugiyama. Other career highlights in WTA main draw events include, a 4th round appearance at the TierI in Indian Wells 2005, eventually losing to then number 1, Lindsay Davenport. Kutuzova has experienced considerable success at an ITF level. She has won four French ITF events. Viktoriya has suffered some shoulder problems throughout her young career which have stalled her progression on the main WTA tour. Currently however, Viktoriya has qualified for Wimbledon 2008 winning three consecutive matches and beating Lapushchenkova, Ozegovic, Barrois. We think she has a solid chance to succeed here and odds above 2.3 are worth considering here.