Wednesday's Matches to Watch: Raonic-Wawrinka; Svitolina-Ostapenko

ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam, Second Round
*Milos Raonic (CAN) - UTR 15.55, ATP No. 14

Stan Wawrinka (SUI) - UTR 15.39, ATP No. 68*

In 2007, I played Raonic in an international junior tournament. I lost in straight sets, unable to return his missile of a serve. I had to run and jump off of one leg in order to try return and his devastating kicker. By the time I landed, he was ripping a forehand approach to the corner. There is nothing you can do when the big Canadian serves well.

Stan Wawrinka has a clear tactic against big servers: he will chip the return back, off both wings, to the middle of the court. His aim is to start the point, then use his bludgeoning groundstrokes to gain the advantage in the rally. The problem with simply chipping your return back against someone like Raonic, though, is now you are inviting a 6’5’’ hyper-athlete with tree-trunk legs to the net. The slow, block return gives Raonic time to run around his forehand, rip it, and follow it in to net. That is not where you want Raonic to be.

After losing the first four of their meetings, it appears Raonic may officially have Wawrinka’s number: he has won the previous three matches, all at Grand Slams. If Stan refuses to hit over his returns, and allows Milos to rip mid-court forehands again, look for the Canadian to earn his fourth consecutive victory over the Swiss champion.

Qatar Total Open, Doha, Second Round
*Elina Svitolina (UKR) - UTR 13.25, WTA No. 7

Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) - UTR 12.49, WTA No. 22*

Svitolina has never beaten Ostapenko before—she hasn’t even won a set, losing to the young Latvian at Wimbledon in 2017 and in Miami last year. In both meetings, Svitolina allowed the 21-year-old to play aggressive, first-strike tennis. Oftentimes, Svitolina relies too much on her steadiness and fitness to outlast her opponents. Against a player like Ostapenko, you must move her around the court and make her hit shots on the run.

But what a difference a year can make. Svitolina now sits at No. 7 in the world, winning the 2018 year-end championships in Singapore and making the quarterfinals of the Australian Open before falling to eventual champion Naomi Osaka. In that timespan, Ostapenko has not done much, losing in the first round of Shenzhen, Sydney and Melbourne.

Judging by each of their three-month trending UTRs, 13.26 for Svitolina and 12.42 for Ostapenko, the Ukrainian is the clear favorite to win this matchup. Look for Svitolina to finally get some revenge on the young Latvian—and don’t be surprised if she comes through in straight sets.

ATP Rotterdam (Mon - Sun 2/11 - 2/17)

•    See Marin Cilic, Kei Nishikori, Karen Khachanov and Stefanos Tsitsipas live on Tennis Channel Plus beginning Monday 2/11 at 6:30 am ET.

ATP New York (Mon - Sun 2/11 - 2/17)

•    Watch Frances Tiafoe, John Isner and Alex de Minaur live from New York starting Monday 2/11 at 11:00 am ET

WTA Doha (Mon - Sat 2/11 - 2/16)

•    Starting Monday 2/11 at 7:30 am ET, catch live coverage of the Qatar Total Open featuring Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova and Angelique Kerber.

ATP Buenos Aires (Mon - Sun 2/11 - 2/17)

•    Catch the action from the Argentina Open including Dominic Thiem, Fabio Fognini and Diego Schwartzman. Live coverage begins on Tennis Channel Plus on Monday 2/11 at 12:30 pm ET

USTA College Match Day 3 Lake Nona - (Sat - 2/16)

•    Tennis Channel Plus features live coverage of USTA College Matches in Lake Nona on Saturday 2/16 4:00 pm ET