Donna Vekic and Anhelina Kalinina will be among those in first round action at the WTA Merida 2025 on Monday, February 24. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Dubai.
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Donna Vekic v Emiliana Arango Preview
Head-to-Head: World number 20 Vekic had neve faced off against the 133rd-ranked Arango before this.
Donna Vekic enters this tournament with a hope of breaking a three-match losing streak and improving upon her 3-6 win-loss record for the season.
It’s not been the kind of year so far the Croat would have liked having started it off with three defeats and now again on another three successive losses. Vekic will look to take heart from her performances at the Australian Open though where she made the fourth round at the expense of Diana Shnaider.
She has a good chance to win one here as she takes on the 133rd-ranked qualifier Emiliano Arango in her opener. The problem for Vekic, however, is that Arango is on a seven-match winning run.
This consists of a title victory at the WTA 125 event in Cancun and a couple of victories in the qualifiers here.
Which is also why we can see a fighting encounter in which Arango might spring a surprise or two.
Vekic v Arango prediction: Arango to win a set – Yes: 1/1
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Anhelina Kalinina v Leolia Jeanjean Preview
Head-to-Head: Kalinina and Jeanjean have never faced off in a competitive match before this.
Anhelina Kalinina was a semifinalist at the Brisbane International competition held earlier this year having defeated Wang Yafan, Diana Shnaider, Yue Yuan and Kimberly Birrell before going down to Polina Kudermetova.
Since that time, however, Kalinina has added just two more wins to her season. Both of which came at the Cluj-Napoca Open. The only mitigating factor to that is that Kalinina has been up against some of the better players very early in the tournament.
This includes Ons Jabeur, Victoria Azarenka and Clara Tauson.
Which is why when she goes up against the 129th-ranked Leolia Jeanjean, things could get easier for her.
Jeanjean hasn’t won a single main draw match at the WTA level despite having made the final of two of the two of the ITF tournaments – held in Bangalore and Pune. She is coming off a fitness scare when she was forced to retire from her opener at WTA Mumbai as she overcame Astra Sharma and Yulia Starodubtseva to clinch her main draw spot.
Kalinina v Jeanjean prediction: Kalinina to win: 1/2
Jessica Bouzas Maneiro v Renata Jamrichova Preview
Head-to-Head: This will be the first ever meeting between the 66th-ranked Bouzas Maneiro and Jamrichova who is ranked 310th in the world.
It’s been a deeply disappointing season for Jessica Bouzas Maneiro who has played seven matches spread across five tournaments and won a mere two. This includes a three-match losing run coming into this one of which two defeats came at the hands of Viktoriya Tomova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
This, for a player who had shot up the rankings in 2024, having risen from being ranked 159th in the world at the start of the year to 54th at the end of the year.
Bouzas Maneiro has a chance to remedy as she takes on a 17-year-old Renata Jamrichova in her opener. Now there are 17-year-olds these days who are breaking into the top 10 of the rankings as well, like has been the case with Mirra Andreeva but Jamrichova is some way away from that, as she makes her WTA debut here.
Maneiro v Jamrichova prediction: Bouzas Maneiro to win: 1/4
Julia Grabher v Maya Joint Preview
Head-to-Head: The 103rd-ranked Joint has never played world number 387 Grabher before this.
When Julia Grabher scraped through to a win over Leyre Romero Gormaz in the first round of the Auckland Open in what was her first match of the season, it would have been a bit of a relief for her.
At the same time, it might have been the sign of things to come given the effort it took her to take down a player ranked outside the top 150.
Things went downhill quickly after that. Grabher lost in the second round of that competition and followed that up with losses at the Australian Open, Linz Open and Cluj-Napoca, all of which came in the first round. And things went worse in an ITF competition last week when Grabher failed to even qualify for the main draw.
She takes on Maya Joint, a player near her career-best ranking of 102nd, having improved from her 116th at the start of the year.
This has been down to her semifinal appearance at the Hobart International and another semifinal showing in a WTA 125 event in Cancun.
Joint holds the aces here and should come away an easy winner.
Grabher v Joint prediction: Joint to win in straight sets: 1/4
