As The SportsRush rightly predicted, Elena Rybakina beat Danielle Collins in the second round of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open 2024. Now, she is all set to face Moldovan-born Spanish tennis player Cristina Bucsa in the tournament’s third round. Bucsa, who is coming on the back of her win over Great Britain’s Heather Watson, will look to make a strong statement against Rybakina. The Elena Rybakina vs Cristina Bucsa contest has all the potential to be a thrilling one.
The Elena Rybakina vs Danielle Collins contest will start at 5.45 AM ET, Friday, February 9. In her match against Rybakina, Danielle Collins put up a good fight as was expected of her. She won the first set 6-4 against the Kazakhstani player. Rybakina then bounced back 6-3, 6-3 in the next two sets. Whether this means that Danielle Collins will finally retire or she has more to offer, is yet to unfold.
Rybakina wasn’t coming off a very great 2024 season, losing her second-round match against Anna Blinkova in the final set that became the longest tie-breaker of this Australian Open. She also slipped in rankings from 3 to 5. Her win against Collins will give her heaps of confidence going forward.
Cristina Bucsa is a 26-year-old WTA player with a world ranking of 74. She made her Grand Slam debut with the 2021 US Open, and two years later reached the third round of the Australian Open 2023. This is her best performance so far. Her wins against Bianca Andreescu and Eva Lys saw her enter the Top 100 rankings last year. Her only title win is the WTA 125 Challenger at the Open de Limoges, defeating Elsa Jacquemot in the final.
Since her glories were recent, her rankings even shot up to 56. But her loss to Blinkova in the first round of the AO 2024, saw her drop 18 places in the WTA rankings. Now, with her straight set wins against Heather Watson by 7-6 (7-1), 7-5, she will be gunning to go all the way.
Considering all fronts, The SportsRush predicts the Kazakhstan star to win the Elena Rybakina vs Cristina Bucsa match on Friday. The odds are in favor of Rybakina, at 1.06 vis-a-vis 6.50 for Bucsa as per Pokerstars. The weather in Abu Dhabi is 21* Celsius, slightly chilly and yet sunny. The live streaming of the Elena Rybakina vs Cristina Bucsa match in the USA is on Tennis Channel Plus and WTA TV.
The Elena Rybakina vs Cristina Bucsa contest has happened only once before. It was in this very year at the Adelaide International, when they met in the Round of 16. Rybakina beat Bucsa 6-3, 7-5. However, an upset is never off the cards. The winner of this match is guaranteed to take home $51,205 USD.
