Tennis Betting Tips: Oliynykova to inflict another loss on Pridankina

It's been a solid week so far on the predictions front, with 4/5 and 6/5 winners on Monday and a 5/2 success on Tuesday, with 13/5 on Ignacio Buse to beat Stefano Tsitsipas in Gstaad the only losing bet from the first two days of the week.

I'm back with my Thursday Tennis Betting Tips, which you can check out below, featuring WTA action from the clay courts of Iasi, Romania, and the hard courts of Athens, Greece...

Set Betting - Oleksandra Oliynykova 2-0 vs Elena Pridankina @ 8/5

Ukrainian No. 3 Oleksandra Oliynykova made her Grand Slam debut at this year's Australian Open and reached her first WTA Tour semi-final at the Transylvania Open before a solid clay swing which culminated in a third-round run at the French Open, where she was defeated by eventual semi-finalist Diana Shnaider.

The 25-year-old's grass swing was much less successful as he lost both of her matches across Eastbourne (qualifiers) and Wimbledon, winning just two games across four sets and suffering three bagels.

She'll have been relieved to get back to the clay courts this week, and she kicked off her Iasi Open campaign on Tuesday with a straight-sets success over Ipek Oz, although she was forced to two tiebreakers, ultimately prevailing 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-5) against the 424th-ranked Turk.

Tennis Odds

Oliynykova will have to step up her game on Thursday against World No. 201 Elena Pridankina, who came through two rounds of qualifying without dropping a set and continued her perfect record in the first round, overcoming home hope Miriam Bianca Bulgaru 7-5, 6-1.

Pridankina has won eight of her last 10 matches on clay, but she's only faced two top-100 opponents in that run, and one of them was Oliynykova at Roland-Garros, where the Russian lost 1-6, 2-6 in their first and so far only meeting.

When Pridankina loses on clay, she tends to lose easily, with 12 of her 13 defeats on the surface, going back to April 2025, coming in straight sets.

Oliynykova only dropped three games to the 20-year-old in Paris a couple of months ago, and while this match will be played in different conditions, in a different country, I don't see too much changing between them, so I'm backing the higher-ranked player to come out on top in straights again here.

Set Betting - Tereza Valentova 2-0 vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich @ 23/20

Over to the hard courts of Athens, where rising Czech star Tereza Valentova takes on Russian veteran Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round.

Seventh seed Valentova, ranked 49th in the world, made light work of fellow 19-year-old Sofia Costoulas in the first round on Tuesday, beating the Belgian 6-1, 6-2, while on the same day, 32-year-old Sasnovich came from a set down to oust compatriot Anna Blinkova 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Sasnovich is 14-8 on hard courts this calendar year, but the last time she faced a top-50 opponent on the surface, Sorana Cirstea at the Dubai Open on February 16, she was beaten 3-6, 6-7.

Valentova, meanwhile, is 10-7 on hard courts in 2026, and only one of her defeats, against Donna Vekic, who has since risen to World No. 35, has come against an opponent ranked outside of the top 100, and that was a marginal defeat at Indian Wells on March 5 (6-7, 6-7).

The teenager breezed past Costoulas on Tuesday and I think she'll make a fast start on Thursday, unsettling a player 13 years her senior, whose serve was broken three times by Blinkova in the opening set of her first-round victory.

The two are at opposite ends of their career, and I'm backing Valentova's hunger and stamina to come to the fore in their first-ever meeting.

Sasnovich was clutch against Blinkova, saving 13 of 17 break points, including six out of six in the second set and six of seven in the third, but Valentova is unlikely to be as charitable if the same opportunities arise.