Analysis for De Los Rios-Lepchenko (WTA Quebec)

Head-to-head record 2:1

American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko will play experienced Paraguayan clay court player Rossana De Los Rios. Lepchenko is still relatively unknown player who has been mentioning more in connection with her asylum problems rather than with her tennis skills and successes. In September 2007 it was revealed that Varvara Lepchenko had become a U.S. citizen and that she is going to represent the United States in WTA Tournaments. Lepchenko and her family whose Russian heritage made them a target of persecution in their homeland, were granted political asylum by the United States. But we think she is an interesting player with solid skills and big potential for further growth. She is definitely able to get among the top 50 and maybe even higher. Her qualifying performances were impressive and we hope to see her continue this way in the main competition. She will face Paraguayan veteran De Los Rios. She was a successful tennis player on the junior tennis circuit. She was the world number one junior in 1992 and won the 1992 Junior French Open, beating Paola Suarez in the final. She turned professional in 1993, but within a year she had retired from professional tennis, citing her new marriage and her desire to raise a family. Five years later, however, Rossana rededicated herself, and made an inspiring run to the fourth round at the 2000 French Open, which was not only impressive for a player who had not played professionally for five years, but also made it through the qualifying rounds and included a win over Amanda Coetzer. After a series of injuries forced her out of action for some time in 2004 and most of 2005, Rossana found great success in 2006 and her WTA Ranking sky rocketed up over 150 places to just outside the top 200. In the past couple of years, Rossana has re-entered the top 100 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings on a number of occasions, and, as of September 2008, she places at number 95 in the world. She is a big fighter who never gives up but her results are inconsistent and she has always played her best on clay courts. We think that she will have to show her best against Lepchenko and are no sure if it is enough. American qualifier is a favourite in our eyes as she should be able to take the advantage of faster surface and qualifying matches she has under the belt. Anything above 1.8 is high enough for us.