In the second round of the WTA 1000 women's tournament in Cincinnati, Oleksandra Oliynykova will play Mirra Andreeva at the Lindner Family Tennis Center courts in Mason 16 August 2026 at 15:00 BST.
Andreeva received a first-round bye and will take to the court without match practice on this surface, while Oliynykova has already played a match here and is in the best form of her career. The difference in match sharpness is what makes this encounter interesting from a betting perspective.
Oliynykova arrived in Ohio at her peak. This summer, she climbed to 46th in the rankings — a career high. Her tennis is built on long rallies, deep groundstrokes and relentless footwork. Players like that do not collapse after one match.
The season confirms it. A semi-final in Cluj-Napoca, with victories over Anna Bondar and fourth seed Wang Xinyu. The third round in Rome and at Roland Garros. In Toronto, she lost to Karolina Pliskova (4:6, 4:6) — evenly, without a single poor spell. She started confidently in Cincinnati, beating Elvina Kalieva (6:4, 6:1).
Andreeva is on a completely different level. World No. 6, Roland Garros champion and leader of the Race. The favourite here is obvious.
But her summer has been uneven. Her Wimbledon ended in the second round with a defeat to Barbora Krejcikova. In Toronto, Mirra crushed Pliskova (6:0, 6:2), then meekly lost to Leylah Fernandez (1:6, 4:6). The result is three defeats in her last five matches. This is not the Andreeva who suffocates opponents from the first game.
The Russian's seven bagels this season look intimidating, but they have mostly come against players outside the top 100. Oliynykova does not fall into that category: she wins her games even in matches she loses.
The +6.5 handicap lands in almost any viable scenario — scores of (4:6, 4:6) or (3:6, 4:6), one set won or a couple of tie-breaks. For it to lose, the Ukrainian's game would have to fall apart completely. She has not given any reason to think that this summer.
