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WTA Korea Open Day 2 Predictions Including Maria Sakkari vs Patricia Maria Tig

Maria Sakkari Korea Open

Day two at the Korea Open in Seoul looks set to provide plenty of entertaining action with the likes of top seed Maria Sakkari of Greece and Czech third seed Karolina Muchova set to join the fray. But who will book their place in the second round?

Korea Open Day Two Predictions

Anastasia Potapova vs Han Na-Lae

Head-to-head: first meeting

Local wildcard Han Na-Lae has enjoyed a fine season and came close to reaching the main draw at both the US Open and in Hiroshima last week. But the Korean has never been higher than 149th in the world rankings and lacks experience at WTA tour-level. Anastasia Potapova, at just 18-years-old, doesn’t have massive amounts of experience either, but she has made an impressive transition to life on the senior tour after her excellent junior career. Now ranked 75th in the world, she will surely be targeting a strong end to the season and looks to be in good position to start fulfilling that goal here.

Prediction: Potapova in 3
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Timea Babos vs Jelena Ostapenko

Head-to-head: Ostapenko 2-1 Babos

2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko has threatened to recapture her winning touch in recent weeks, only to unexpectedly falter. That said, she has been winning more matches than she has been losing, which is a positive sign. Timea Babos, meanwhile, has had an poor season, but has impressed in qualifying both for the US Open and the Korea Open. In fact, she dropped just six games in reaching the main draw in Seoul. All three of their previous contests have been close and this match should follow a similar pattern. But the quick conditions would seem to favour Babos and that should just give her the edge.

Prediction: Babos in 3
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Karolina Muchova vs Alison Van Uytvanck

Head-to-head: first meeting

It has been an undeniably excellent season for Karolina Muchova, particularly at the Majors. The Czech stormed into the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and backed that up by reaching the third round at the US Open, though she will surely have been disappointed by her performance in defeat there to Serena Williams. Nonetheless, her smooth, all-court attacking game is proving most effective. Van Uytvanck, in contrast, has been in largely indifferent form but did reach the quarterfinals in Hiroshima last week. But her movement can be exposed by the better players on tour and Muchova is certainly in that category.

Prediction: Muchova in 2
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Maria Sakkari vs Patricia Maria Tig

Head-to-head: Tig 1-0 Sakkari

Maria Sakkari may well be frustrated with her failure to capitalise on her good form heading into the US Open, but that should not detract from what a good season the Greek has had. Patricia Maria Tig also deserves tremendous credit for her 2019, as she has returned from arriving without a ranking in Bucharest to reach the final there as a qualifier. She has continued to play good tennis since and won this pair’s only previous meeting three years ago in Madrid. But Sakkari has improved considerably since then and though this looks likely to be a tough battle for the top seed, it is one she should have enough to win.

Prediction: Sakkari in 3

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