One of the most interesting clashes of the day at the Volvo Car Open sees two former French Open finalists, 5th seed Sara Errani and 10th seed Sam Stosur, face off for a place in the quarter-finals in Charleston. This match will take place at around 15:00 Charleston Time (20:00 UK Time), and the winner will face Yulia Putintseva or 3rd seed Venus Williams in the last eight of the tournament.
Neither woman has dropped a set so far, though Errani has the potential advantage of having a bye in the first round. The Italian impressed with a very comfortable win over Yaroslava Shvedova in the second round, though found it a little tricky towards the end; she will be looking for a stronger end here. Stosur has found both her matches a little more tricky, edging past Aleksandra Krunic and Jana Cepelova, and she may need to play better against a strong clay court player like Errani.
Of the two, Stosur is the more powerful and she should try to use that power to full effect, by attacking Errani’s weaker serve and trying to consistently dictate play. The Australian will need to server well as well and make few double faults (something she hasn’t really done so far), whilst she should also look to try and move Errani around the court. The 10th seed must not try to force play too much though, as she can be prone to errors. The majority of play may be down to Stosur, so it is important for Errani to defend well. The Italian must look to hang in on points and try to force errors from the Australian, though should look to attack at any opportunity she gets. The 5th seed will need to serve at a high percentage to stop Stosur dictating play, though could also attack Stosur’s second serve.
Stosur leads the head to head 6-2, though the head to head is split at 1-1 on clay. The Australian does seem to have some advantage over the Italian, though Errani has played better clay in the past couple of seasons and has had a better 2016 so far. It seems that the 5th seed could edge this.
Prediction: Errani in 3
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