Tennis
2025-11-01 - Amanda Anisimova vs Elena Rybakina
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis: WTA Finals Group Stage
Saturday 1st November 2025 - Scheduled 8pm
5pm (British Time)
Preview
2025 will be a year in which Amanda Anisimova will look back fondly and perhaps point to the last six months as being the moment when she transitioned from a player with huge potential to joining the elite on the Tour.
This is the debut at the WTA Finals for the 24 year old American, but Amanda Anisimova reached the Final at Wimbledon and at the US Open.
All credit has to be given to Amanda Anisimova for recovering from failing to win a game in the Wimbledon Final to rally and go again in New York City. A title has been earned in Beijing during the Asian swing and a strong first serve is backed up by some aggressive groundstrokes, which should make Anisimova dangerous on the indoor hard courts.
First up is a Group Stage match against Elena Rybakina who was the last of the eight Singles players to take her place at the WTA Finals- the World Number 6 won the title in Ningbo and managed to win another couple of matches in Tokyo to earn her spot in Riyadh and Elena Rybakina withdrew from the tournament in the Japanese capital once that place was secured.
A back injury was the reason given and so there are going to be some concerns about her fitness, while Elena Rybakina is only 2-4 in the last two years in the WTA Finals.
She has a big serve, which will always give Elena Rybakina a chance, although there does need to be a little bit of improvement on the return of serve if she is going to earn another Grand Slam title to add to the Wimbledon title won previously.
One of the big disappointments for Elena Rybakina in 2025 has to be the lack of a real Grand Slam run and that does mean she can improve her World Ranking over the coming twelve months. There is a lot to like about her tennis, but she has lost some matches from winning positions and nothing will come easy for Rybakina against the elite of the WTA Tour.
Picking a winner is tough and the layers are finding it hard to separate two big hitting, aggressive players in the first meeting against one another.
The serve could be a dominant weapon for both players and there is every chance that this is a match that will surpass the total games line set.
It is possible for that to happen in a straight sets win for either player, but both are capable of 'getting hot' for a stretch of games that could see each win a set. A three match would see the two players combining for enough games to cover this line barring something really crazy going on with the scoreboard.
Prediction
Look for two big servers to combine for enough games to cover this total games line.
The Pick :
Amanda Anisimova 2-1 Elena Rybakina
