Rome 2020: Elina Svitolina vs Svetlana Kuznetsova preview, head-to-head & prediction | Italian Open 

Match details

Fixture: Elina Svitolina vs Svetlana Kuznetsova

Date: 18 September 2020

Tournament: Italian Open 2020

Round: Third round (Round of 16)

Venue: Rome, Italy

Category: WTA Premier 5

Surface: Red clay

Prize money: €1,771,082

Match timing: Not before 7 pm CEST, 10.30 pm IST

Live telecast: USA - Tennis Channel / ESPN

Elina Svitolina vs Svetlana Kuznetsova preview

26-year-old Elina Svitolina from Ukraine, ranked No. 6 in the world, will go up against 35-year-old Svetlana Kuznetsova from Russia, ranked No. 38 in the world, in the Rome third round on Friday.

Svitolina is a former World No. 3 and a two-time champion at the Italian Open while Kuznetsova is a former World No. 2 and a two-time Grand Slam winner.

Both players skipped the recent hardcourt events in New York, including the US Open, as they did not want to travel to the United States during the current pandemic. This is Svitolina's first tournament since the WTA event in Monterrey in February, which she won.

In her first match this week, Svitolina scored a straight sets win over a tough competitor - Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Late night shift 🤩 good to be back playing matches! ⁣Very strange and little bit sad to be playing without fans (especially here in Rome, you guys are crazy good 👏🏼) 🥰💌 Io amo l'Italia! 🇮🇹📸: @jimmie48tennis pic.twitter.com/fBFNYvZzSk

— Elina Svitolina (@ElinaSvitolina) September 16, 2020

Kuznetsova lost her first match last week in Istanbul to Eugenie Bouchard, who went all the way to the finals. However, the Russian veteran has won both her matches this week in three sets, over World No. 60 Bernarda Pera and No. 14 seed Anett Kontaveit.

.@SvetlanaK27 comes back to beat Kontaveit 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in nearly three hours! ⏱️#IBI20 pic.twitter.com/gi1wcwHy3c

— wta (@WTA) September 17, 2020

Elina Svitolina vs Svetlana Kuznetsova head-to-head

Svetlana Kuznetsova during her first-round win at the Italian Open earlier this week.

Elina Svitolina leads the head to head in this series 3-1, but all of their four matches have come on hardcourts.

Kuznetsova defeated Svitolina in three sets at her home event in Moscow in 2016. Svitolina on the other hand has registered wins at the Australian Open in 2014, the Cincinnati Masters in 2018 and the Wuhan Open in 2019 - dropping just one set in total.

Elina Svitolina vs Svetlana Kuznetsova prediction

Elina Svitolina poses with the trophy after winning the Internazionali BNL d'Italia 2018 in Rome.

Both players are very consistent from the baseline, so this could be a real slugfest. Svitolina has the fresher wheels - being almost a decade younger - but the Russian has that much more experience.

It's going to come down to who can go on the offense more efficiently in the match, while also keeping their error count at a minimum. This is a tough one to call and I'm tilted in favor of the Ukrainian player, by just about a tiny sliver.

Prediction: Elina Svitolina to win in three sets.