1 week Ago By Rohit
Fixture : (3) Katie Volynets vs Anastasia Zakharova Date : April 29, 2025 Tournament : L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo Round : First Round (Round of 32) Venue : Tennis Club JA Saint-Malo, Saint-Malo, France Surface : Clay Category : WTA 125 Prize Money : $115,000 Live Telecast : USA - Tennis Channel/TC Plus Third seed Katie Volynets will square off against Anastasia Zakharova in the first round of the L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo 2025. Volynets started the year with a quarterfinal showing at the ASB Classic in Auckland. She failed to advance beyond the first round of her next two tournaments, including the Australian Open.
She then reached the second round of the Abu Dhabi Open. Volynets lost in the first round of her next four tournaments to end the hardcourt swing on a five-match losing streak. She commenced her clay swing at the Charleston Open , where she lost to Ashlyn Krueger in the second round.
The American then participated in the Oeiras Challenger. She made it all the way to the final where she came up short against Dalma Galfi. She started her Madrid Open campaign with a 6-4, 6-0 win over two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova .
However, she got outplayed by 13th Diana Shnaider in the next round, going down to her 6-1, 6-2. Zakharova qualified for the main draw of two tournaments at the WTA level this year, the Linz Open and the ATX Open. She lost in the first round on each occasion.
She recently won a title on the ITF circuit at the W100 event in Zaragoza. She tried to qualify for the Madrid Open after that but fell in the first round of qualifying. This will be the first career meeting between the two, so the head-to-head stands at 0-0 for now.
(Odds are sourced from BetMGM) Neither player has been particularly impressive at the WTA level this year. Nevertheless, Volynets ' 5-10 record still beats Zakharova's 0-2 record on the WTA Tour this season. Both achieved a solid result in recent weeks as well.
Volynets was the runner-up at the Oeiras Challenger while Zakharova won an ITF tournament. Both tournaments were held on clay. Given how they've played this year, the American will be expected to make a winning start to her campaign in Saint-Malo.
Zakharova has a 0-4 career record against top 100 players on clay, further undermining her chances of success in this match-up. Volynets has a 10-3 record against players ranked outside the top 100 this year. While she has struggled against a handful of lower-ranked players, that's unlikely to be the case in her upcoming match against the Russian.
Pick : Katie Volynets to win in straight sets. Rohit Rohit is a journalist at Sportskeeda who specializes in covering tennis. Having been with the company for three years, he has proven himself as a formidable force in the field.
With a Master's degree in law, Rohit brings his analytical and research skills to the forefront as a journalist. He stays on top of the game by using social media platforms and never misses a match for on-court insights. He values giving credit where it's due, keeping his reporting fair and accurate.
At the outset of his career, Rohit found his niche in writing previews and SEO pieces and it's this expertise that continues to define his role at Sportskeeda. He is particularly proud of one article that garnered an impressive 750k views and surpassed his "wildest dreams." Rohit is not particularly fond of (GOAT) debates and it is one of the reasons why he left the legal world behind.
He prefers to view players in "tiers," where they're all esteemed to an extent. However, if pressed to name favorites, he would choose Serena and Venus Williams. The Williams sisters' journey from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of tennis has been his greatest source of inspiration.
When he isn't busy making spot-on predictions about match outcomes, Rohit likes reading, particularly fantasy, sci-fi, and comics. As an X-Men fanatic, he's also passionate about board games and enjoys watching movies in his spare time. And don't be surprised if you catch him silently wishing to the tennis gods for the removal of ad scoring from doubles.
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