Analysis for Azarenka-Suarez Navarro (WTA French Open)

Head-to-head record 1:0

Belarusian superstar Victoria Azarenko will play Spanish clay court specialist Carla Suarez Navarro. Suarez Navarro's game is that of an offensive baseliner. She has good defensive skills and uses an extreme western grip. Unlike most female professional tennis players, she has a single-handed backhand. Suarez Navarro has said in interviews that her favorite shot is her cross-court backhand and that her favorite surfaces are clay and hard. It is said that there's something of Justine Henin about her game. At the Australian Open in Melbourne, Suarez Navarro upset World No. 6 Venus Williams in the second round, and after defeating World No. 23 Anabel Medina Garrigues in the fourth round, she was defeated by World No. 4 Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinals. In March, she reached her first final on the WTA Tour at the Andalucia Tennis Experience, a clay court event in Marbella, Spain. She lost to Jelena Jankovic in the final in three sets. She is a very solid clay court player who is defending quarterfinals here. She will play probably the most shining star of current tennis world – Victoria Azarenka. We think that this girl will become the Wolrd No.1 sooner or later and we think that she is even able to win Wimbledon this year. On the other hand, she doesn’t feel well on clay and her latest results weren´t so stellar as the results from the beginning of the year. In Stuttgart, she was eliminated by Gisela Dulko in the second round. At the Italian Open, Azarenka defeated Wozniacki to set up a quarterfinal clash with Kaia Kanepi. After defeating the Estonian in straight sets, she lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals. She defeated Vinci and Barrois here in Paris but especially the second match was really tight and Victoria was close to be defeated. Suarez, on the other hand, has had no troubles at all so far and we think that anything above 2.5 is worth taking here.