Wimbledon 2021: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Ana Bogdan preview, head-to-head & prediction

Match Details

Fixture: (16) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Ana Bogdan

Date: 29 June 2021

Tournament: The Championships, Wimbledon

Round: First round (Round of 128)

Venue: London, Great Britain

Category: Grand Slam

Surface: Grass

Prize money: £17,066,000

Live telecast: USA - ESPN & Tennis Channel | UK - BBC TV & Radio | India - Star Sports / Disney+ Hotstar VIP

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Ana Bogdan preview

16th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will open her 2021 Wimbledon campaign against unseeded Romanian Ana Bogdan on Tuesday.

Pavlyuchenkova reached her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros a few weeks ago and will enter Wimbledon with the hope of making another deep run. That said, she made a poor start to her grasscourt season, losing in the first round of the Eastbourne International.

Ana Bogdan

Bogdan, meanwhile, enters the tournament with no grasscourt matches under her belt this year. The last match she played was at Roland Garros, where she lost in to Paula Badosa in the third round.

Bogdan, who had her breakthrough season back in 2018, has been plagued by injuries for the last couple of years. She did show flashes of her best tennis in Paris and will be hopeful of a solid showing here.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Ana Bogdan head-to-head

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova leads Ana Bogdan 1-0 in their current head-to-head. The Russian dropped just one game in their previous meeting at the 2019 Shenzhen Open.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Ana Bogdan prediction

Pavlyuchenkova has an all-court game well-suited to grass

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is coming off a first-round defeat in Eastbourne against eventual champion Jelena Ostapenko. However, the Russian's performance in that match wasn't a true indicator of her abilities on the surface.

She possesses a strong all-court game that is well-suited to grass; Pavlyuchenkova can hit the ball flat and with a lot of pace. She is also comfortable mixing things up and often approaches the net to finish points quickly.

Ana Bogdan, meanwhile, has a few strengths of her own. The Romanian's backhand is a particularly strong weapon that can deal a lot of damage. But her serve remains a weakness and she could struggle to protect it against an aggressive returner in Pavlyuchenkova.

If Pavlyuchenkova can put pressure on Bogdan's serve and target the Romanian's forehand consistently, she should be able to emerge with the victory.

Prediction: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to win in three sets.