Coco Gauff Heavy Favorite vs Vickery at Porsche Tennis Grand Prix

Teenage tennis sensation Coco Gauff continues her march through the clay court season this week at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany. The 19-year-old American prodigy is a heavy -2000 favorite over veteran Sachia Vickery in their round of 16 clash on Wednesday.

Gauff, currently ranked No. 3 in the world, is seeking her first title of 2024 after reaching the quarterfinals or better at four tournaments already this year, including the Miami Open. The precocious baseliner lost a tight three-set match to Caroline Garcia in the round of 16 in Miami in her last outing.

Vickery, meanwhile, enters this matchup ranked a lowly No. 134 after years of struggling to find consistency on tour. The 28-year-old American grinder pulled off a minor upset by ousting Aliaksandra Sasnovich in straight sets in the opening round in Stuttgart.

While Vickery’s defensive, counterpunching style could pose some issues for the more aggressive Gauff on clay, the vast gap in talent and ranking makes Gauff a prohibitive betting favorite according to the oddsmakers at BetMGM. Vickery is listed at +800 to pull off the shocker against the young American superstar.

Gauff has been nearly unbeatable on clay over the past 12 months. In 11 career matches on the surface, she has won 64.9% of her service games and an impressive 44.1% of her return games. Her ability to consistently apply pressure by breaking serve is a major reason why she is considered a +700 co-favorite to take home the title in Stuttgart.

For Vickery to have any chance at the massive upset, she will need to rely on her superior experience and outstanding defensive skills to extend rallies and make Gauff beat her from the baseline over and over again. Vickery has proven surprisingly effective at holding serve (59.7% of service games won) and breaking serve (50.2% of return games won) over her last 10 events.

Statistics, however, suggest Gauff will eventually overpower the tenacious Vickery from the back of the court. The young phenom has won a stellar 71% of her service games over the past year while racking up a break point conversion rate just over 55% during that span.

With oddsmakers installing Gauff as a massive -2000 favorite, the betting markets are saying Vickery’s chances of an upset are quite slim indeed. Gauff’s combination of booming serves, massive groundstrokes and solid movement should allow her to dictate play from start to finish against the defensive-minded Vickery. Barring a wildly off day from the rising American star, expect Gauff to move on to the quarterfinals with relative ease in Stuttgart.