Anastasia Soboleva – Victoria Golubych. Aus Open Qualifying Match Prediction

January 6 Ukrainian tennis player Anastasia Soboleva (WTA 216) will begin qualifying for the 2025 Australian Open.

In the 1st round of selection, the Ukrainian will play against Victoria Golubych (Switzerland, WTA 90). Estimated start time of the game – 05:30 Kyiv time.

Anastasia Soboleva

Soboleva will play for the first time in the qualification of the Australian Open and for the third time in the tournament of the Grand Slam series. The previous two attempts were unsuccessful – in 2024, Anastasia lost to Destana Ayava at the start of selection for Wimbledon and Miriam Björklund in the 1st round of the US Open qualifier.

And it is worth noting that then rivals were simpler than now. It is enough to look at the rating – Golubych is 90th, and Ayava and Björklund were 193rd and 651st, respectively.

But this does not mean that it is not possible to create a small sensation, especially since Anastasia has already done it at the start of the new season. Soboleva’s preparation for the major was the five-hundredth in Brisbane, where she also got into the selection sieve. There, in the 1st round, she rather unexpectedly passed Daria Saville, who took the 108th position. Unfortunately, it was not possible to break into the base – the Ukrainian lost to Maddison Inglis in the final of the qualification.

Having started the last season at the 260th place, Anastasia managed to finish at the 216th position, and before the US Open she was 205th. In 2024, Soboleva had 13 wins and 18 losses, but for the first time she focused on bigger tournaments than the ITF series competition. Well, we managed to rise in the rating, so there is progress. It remains to develop it further.

And the match with Golubych will show at what level Anastasia is now. Should we believe in her rapid rise to the first hundred, as we saw with Starodubtseva in 2023/2024, or will we have to wait.

Anthony Cox. Anastasia Soboleva Victoria Golubych

First of all, Golubych is a very experienced tennis player. She is 32 and, perhaps, hot Melbourne will play into the hands of the younger Anastasia, especially since Victoria has not yet played in the new season.

But Victoria ended 2024 with a 12-match winning streak: in early November, she became the WTA 250 champion in Jiujiang (China), after which she brought the Swiss national team two victories in the Billie Jean King Cup playoff match against Serbia, and in the middle won the WTA 125 tournament in Limoges (France) in December.

And Anastasia is still very far from this level. And Victoria reached the 35th position in the WTA ranking.

We hope that Soboleva will not be scared even before going on the court. The opponent is dangerous, experienced, but not the youngest. It is real to run over for a quality game.

Victoria plays with a one-handed backhand. She is one of the few such on the Tour (Diane Parry, Jessica Ponchet, Tatiana Maria from +- famous active tennis players). A one-handed backhand is generally considered weaker than a two-handed backhand. The reasons are that it is more difficult to receive, the swing is more difficult, the ball must be met further from you. Therefore, for Anastasia’s level, there is a very good option – to try to play the backhand corner as much as possible. And give fewer chances to be cut and not let it reach the net, because Victoria will definitely have no problems with that.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Victoria Golubych Forecast for the match Victoria Golubych – Anastasia Soboleva

Golubych is the clear favorite at 1.15. On Soboleva – 6.00. But the lack of practice of full matches for 20 days is unlikely to benefit 32-year-old Victoria. The big difference in quotes gives us a big line for good numbers on Anastasia’s + handicap. +6.5 for 1.65 looks not bad, and also patriotic.