Day one at the WTA’s Nottingham Open was a washout and the tournament organiser’s face a similar problem on day two. All rather reminiscent of the scheduling issues the French Open had. But who will come through in difficult conditions on day two at the Nottingham Open?
WTA Nottingham Day 2 Predictions
Astra Sharma vs Magdaléna Rybáriková
Head-to-head: first meeting
Magdaléna Rybáriková has typically enjoyed grass-court tennis. Just last week, the former-Wimbledon semifinalist made the final of a strong ITF-event in Surbiton, only losing out to established grass-courter Alison Riske. She also made the final in Birmingham last year. As a result, she surely will be confident of making a good start to her grass-court campaign in Nottingham this year.
She is currently ranked at 74th in the world, but could improve on the ranking swiftly with some good performances in the coming months. And she may well fancy her chance of defeating Australia’s Astra Sharma. But the 23-year-old is starting to show some consistency. She made the final in Bogota, pushing recent French Open semifinalist Amanda Anisimova to three sets. However, she is an unknown quantity on grass, with no real previous record on the surface. So expect the seasoned grass courter Rybáriková to emerge victorious.
Rybarikova in two
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Heather Watson vs Maria Sakkari
Head-to-head: Sakkari 1-0 Watson
In Nottingham, Heather Watson will be playing in her first WTA tour event since the Hungarian Open in February. But, though she has long been out of action, Watson has played some of her best tennis on the grass and reached the quarterfinals in Surbiton last week. Watson’s strong groundstrokes when on song, make grass the perfect surface for her. A win here would surely be a real boost ahead of Wimbledon.
Fourth seed Maria Sakkari arrives in Nottingham after a fine start to the season. Though she didn’t win a game on match last season, she made the quarterfinals in Nottingham in 2017, losing out to eventual champion Donna Vekic. She will also have extra motivation thanks to the chance to avenge the Greek defeat in the Fed Cup earlier this year. Expect Sakkari to have too much guile and quality for Watson on the British #3’s return to action.
Prediction Sakkari in three
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Maia Lumsden vs Tara Moore
Head-to-head: Tara Moore 1-0 Maia Lumsden
Scotland’s 21-year-old Maia Lumsden has shown decent form at ITF level in Asia recently. She won a hard-court title at the Goyang ITF event. However, she is 0-8 on grass since she turned pro in 2012. Lumpen is in the first round by virtue of a wildcard, whereas Tara Moore had to play some fine tennis to beat second seed Tereza Martincova and Giulia Gatto-Monticone. The-26-year old Brit Moore won their only previous match, which came at ITF level in 2014, and has much more experience on the grass, with a laudable 47-46 win-loss record on the surface so far. Expect her to edge this clash.
Prediction: Moore in three
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Dayana Yastremska vs Elena Gabriela Ruse
Head-to-head: Ruse 1-0 Yastremska
Last season Yastremska did not enjoy a good grass-court season. But she has played so well so far in 2019 that it is hard to rule her out of title contention at the All England Club this year. She is a dark horse for this title and is definitely a different player to the one who lost in a 2017 ITF event to the Romanian Elena Gabriela Ruse. Yastremska should level the head-to-head record comfortably.
Prediction: Yastremska in two
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