Caroline Dolehide vs Arantxa Rus

Wimbledon 2025 – 1st Round Preview
Caroline Dolehide vs Arantxa Rus

🧠 Form & Context

Caroline Dolehide

• 🇺🇸 Slam struggles persist: Still searching for a main-draw win at Wimbledon (0–3) and yet to go beyond the 2nd round in any major.
• 📉 Inconsistent 2025: Carries a 14–14 record into Wimbledon, with no back-to-back main-draw wins since March.
• 💡 Pockets of success: Earned solid wins over Bouzkova and Avanesyan this spring, and pushed Ostapenko to three sets at Roland Garros.
• 🍃 Grass form: 2–2 this season, including losses to Jabeur and Gracheva—respectable opponents, but not much momentum gained.
• 🔥 Motivation factor: One of her best chances yet to finally claim a Slam win on grass against a beatable opponent.

Arantxa Rus

• 📉 2025 in disarray: Just two tour-level main draw wins this season; results have nosedived since early clay ITFs.
• 🌱 Grass = graveyard: Winless on grass in 2025 and just one WTA grass win in the last two years.
• 📈 Glimmers of fight: Beat Osorio at Roland Garros and stretched Clara Tauson in R2, but otherwise has looked flat and error-prone.
• 🎓 Veteran instincts: With over 120 career grass matches, Rus has experience—but at 34, her ability to sustain high-level movement on this surface is questionable.

🔍 Match Breakdown

While neither player enters in red-hot form, this is a golden opportunity for Dolehide. Her aggressive serve-first style is built for grass, and she’ll benefit from facing a lefty who doesn’t have much pace to counterpunch with.

Rus’s recent performances have been worrying: a brutal 6-1, 6-1 loss to Kudermetova and a collapse after winning a set 6-0 against Persson suggest a major confidence deficit. The Dutch veteran can still construct points, but her legs and consistency are fading.

If Dolehide keeps her errors down and serves well, she should control this matchup. The biggest risk is letting Rus extend rallies—something the American must avoid with proactive court positioning and short-point tactics.

🔮 Prediction

The American holds the edge in power, surface suitability, and recent results. Unless she self-destructs with unforced errors, Dolehide should advance without too much stress.

Prediction: Caroline Dolehide in 2 sets. Rus may push one set to a tiebreak, but Dolehide’s weaponry and motivation to break her Slam duck should carry her through.