Round 1 continues on Tuesday at the 2019 TEB BNP Paribas Open, with the top seeds Carla Suarez Navarro and Mihaela Buzarnescu facing their first opponents. Who will win on Tuesday? And who should be on upset alert? Let’s break it down for you here.
WTA Istanbul Day 2 Predictions
Sorana Cirstea vs Irina Maria Bara
Head to head: First meeting
In this Romanian clash, Cirstea is obviously much more accomplished, with a career-high of #21 and a quarterfinal appearance at the 2009 French Open. She will go down in history as one those big talents which just couldn’t get the most of their potential due to recurring injuries. Irina Maria Bara has played a lot more on clay courts this year, but we can’t really trust her to defeat a player whose peak performance is so much higher than her younger compatriot.
Prediction: Cirstea in 2
Maria Sakkari vs Veronika Kudermetova
Head to head: First meeting
If it wasn’t for Sakkari not really delivering on clay in the past, it would be a pretty straightforward pick. Kudermetova stormed through qualifying, but the quality of the opposition was nothing compared to the Greek. We were very surprised to see Sakkari playing really well in Charleston two weeks ago (defeated Bertens and Petkovic) and although green clay is a little different than the regular red clay they’ll play on in Istanbul, we expect the Greek to be a tiny bit better in the most important moments.
Prediction: Sakkari in 3
Carla Suarez Navarro vs Lara Arruabarrena
Head to head: Arruabarena 1-0
The betting odds for this one suggest a big advantage for the #1 seed. We’re actually going to go against the grain here. Suarez Navarro has been pretty much disastrous this year so far (aside for a quarterfinal in Dubai) and she dropped her opening rubber in Lugano to the eventual champion Polona Hercog. It would be very unwise to underestimate Arruabarena, whose grinding baseline game works best on clay, and who played a pretty good week in Bogota (lost to Astra Sharma in the semifinals). Suarez Navarro’s best days are long gone and although she should probably be considered as the favorite, we see a huge upset alert here.
Prediction: Arruabarena in 3
Cagla Buyukakcay vs Svetlana Kuznetsova
Head to head: First meeting
What to expect here? No one really knows. Two-time Major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has just come back from a six-month break and reached the quarterfinals in Lugano (lost to Kristyna Pliskova). You can never underestimate the Russian’s powerful game and her will to fight but she’s still a big question mark, especially considering all her matches in that Swiss city went to three sets. Cagla Buyukakcay is another total mystery. She caught fire in early 2016 and rose up the ranks with an out of nowhere title at this very tournament. Then she hit rock-bottom and didn’t win a main draw WTA match for almost a year. Buyukakcay is slowly rebuilding her form in smaller events, and considering her past history at this event and Kuznetsova’s rustiness, we’ll give her a set. Her winning this match would be a beautiful story, but we just don’t think it will happen.
Prediction: Kuznetsova in 3
Main Photo:
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