The 2024 Dubai Tennis Championships is underway and several WTA players have already reached the second round. One of the first-round clashes that remain is Paula Badosa vs Lulu Sun. While Badosa entered the tournament, courtesy of the Protected Ranking system, Sun is a wildcard entrant in the championship. Theirs is the only match remaining in section 2 of the Top half of the WTA 500.
The Paula Badosa vs Lulu Sun match will take place at 6.15 pm local time (9.15 AM ET) on Monday i.e. 19th February. They will play on the outdoor hard courts of the Dubai Tennis Centre.
Paula Badosa, a 26-year-old Spanish tennis player, has been a professional tennis player for more than 10 years now. She reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2022, her best Grand Slam performance to date. More recently, injuries kept her out of Wimbledon and the Australian Open. Before the Dubai Tennis Championships, Badosa played in the Qatar Open, where she beat Ashlyn Kreuger 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Round of 64. She lost in the Round of 32 against Leylah Fernandez.
Lulu Sun, on the other hand, is 22 years old and only made her Grand Slam debut this year at the Australian Open. Sun, previously known as Lulu Radvocic, is a Swiss player and her career highlight has been winning the ITF tournament 6 times. Most recently, she won in Roehampton, Great Britain against local player Heather Watson 7-5, 7-5.
Badosa ranks 74 in the WTA rankings and Sun ranks 181. The latter is also relatively new and less experienced than Badosa in professional tennis. Keeping all of that in mind, The SportsRush predicts Paula Badosa to win the match between Paula Badosa vs Lulu Sun in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
What do records tell us about Paula Badosa vs Lulu Sun?
The Paula Badosa vs Lulu Sun match in Dubai will be the first-of-its-kind on the WTA Tour. This will be the first time they will play against each other in any main draw. Therefore, not much can be inferred from that aspect. However, BetMGM places the odds of -500 on Paula Badosa and +333 on Lulu Sun. They predict Paula Badosa to win the match as the favorite.
The match can be streamed live online on Tennis TV. The American audience can watch it live on Tennis Channel and the British audience can watch it on Sky Sports. The weather in Dubai is 24 degrees Celsius with 31 km/h wind speed, 53% humidity, and zero precipitation. It should be a good match.
