Alycia Parks and Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva meet in the first round at Toronto on Monday. Alycia Parks limps in on a 2-match losing skid, just 5 wins in 10. Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva is searching for form, having lost 5 in a row (3 of the last 10).
The serve is where this match separates: Parks has been winning 70.6% of first-serve points to Kasintseva's 59.5%, and on hard that gap compounds fast. The edge belongs to Parks — real, but not the kind you take for granted at this level.