Stuttgart Open 2023: Pliskova vs Vekic Tennis Prediction and Pick

TennisSection previews the 2023 Stuttgart Open round of 16 match featuring Karolina Pliskova vs Donna Vekic on Thursday, April 20, 2023.

Pliskova vs Vekic Match Preview and Prediction

Big-serving Karolina Pliskova chases another quarterfinal at the Stuttgart Open. Will she dominate Donna Vekic and pick up her seventh win in the series?

Karolina Pliskova made short work of Maria Sakkari, beating the eighth-seeded Greek 6-2, 6-3 to progress into the last 16 of the Stuttgart Open. It’s her third top-10 win in the last 12 months, and remarkably, all coming against the Greek player. Pliskova has a great record at this tournament despite her lack of affinity to clay, making the quarterfinals three times and winning the event in 2018. Let’s see if she can scale another tough opponent in Donna Vekic on Thursday.

Donna Vekic, for her part, won a big-hitting contest against Ekaterina Alexandrova on Monday evening at the Stuttgart Open, taking slightly over two hours to pinch the match in two tiebreak sets. She’s had a couple of days to recharge and go at it again on Thursday when she faces Karolina Pliskova.

Pliskova vs Vekic Prediction and Pick

Karolina Pliskova leads Donna Vekic 6-2 in their head-to-head. They have played once on clay, with Pliskova taking that encounter in straight sets at the 2021 French Open. Pliskova has been overlooked many times this year despite making a pair of quarterfinals at the Australian Open and the WTA 1000 in Dubai. The Stuttgart Open plays to her liking, with her serve piercing through the court and her ground strokes wreaking havoc against the WTA’s counterpunchers in recent years. Vekic is not dissimilar to Pliskova, but her serve can occasionally falter and she’s not particularly comfortable mixing things up under pressure. Back the Czech to win this latest tussle.