The brand new 2020 season is upon us. Fresh hope, excitement and possibilities for every player and fan of the sport. As is traditional the players will start in the Asia-Pacific region and the first WTA Premier event will be WTA Brisbane. The tournament has attracted a lot of the top players and play begins on Monday.
Don’t miss our previews and predictions for the four most attractive Day 1 matches. In addition to this article, we also have a second set of predictions for you.
WTA Brisbane Day 1 Predictions
Samantha Stosur vs Angelique Kerber
Head-to-Head Record: Kerber 7-3 Stosur
The crowd will get the opportunity to cheer on a home favourite here, but interestingly Stosur has a poor record in Australia (60 wins, 65 losses). That record gets worse when focusing solely on Brisbane where Stosur boasts only four wins from thirteen matches.
When combining this with Kerber’s dominance in the head-to-head record this quickly begins to look like an uphill task for the veteran Aussie.
The only saving grace could be the German’s complete lack of form in 2019. Kerber didn’t win a single title and made only two finals all year. Her ranking has therefore dropped to 20, however, her tournament record here at WTA Brisbane is strong.
There is simply too much evidence pointing towards Kerber here to ignore. The German will be keen to ensure that she continues to come back to her best form in “even” years. Her 2016 and 2018 seasons saw her win Grand Slam titles and finish in the top 5 in the rankings. Take her to progress against Stosur here.
Prediction: Kerber in 2
Sofia Kenin vs Anastasia Sevastova
Head-to-Head Record: Kenin 1-0 Sevastova
These two players had contrasting 2019 seasons which saw them virtually swap places in the rankings. The young American had a superb season, winning three titles, and finishing inside the top 12 in the rankings. The Latvian meanwhile would have been pleased to win the inaugural WTA Jurmala tournament in her home country but outside of that triumph was inconsistent at best.
Their sole meeting came during Kenin’s run to the Mallorca title on grass. On that occasion, the American was able to compete well in the long rallies with Sevastova. The Latvian does have a winning record in Brisbane (5-2) but Kenin has great potential. The American should be too consistent from the back of the court for the Latvian. Take Kenin to progress on her WTA Brisbane debut.
Prediction: Kenin in 2
Johanna Konta vs Barbora Strycova
Head-to-Head Record: Strycova 2-0 Konta
This will be a rematch of the Wimbledon 2019 quarterfinal. On that occasion, Strycova played brilliantly to capitalise on the pressure building around Konta to win at her home Grand Slam. Although the head-to-head record appears one-sided, three of the four sets completed have gone to 7-5 or 7-6. This could be also a closely fought battle.
Both players are strong on serve so whichever player can make inroads into their opponent’s service games should win the match. However, even that is difficult to predict because their service return stats are also very similar.
This may come down to one or two decisive points in the match. Konta hasn’t actually played a competitive match since the US Open in September so it will be important for her early on to get into the pace of the match. If the Briton is able to do that then she could win this one.
Prediction: Konta in 3
Elina Svitolina vs Danielle Collins
Head-to-head record: First meeting
Svitolina added Marcos Baghdatis to her coaching team in the off-season and this will be the first time that observations can be made about potential changes to the Ukranian’s game. Svitolina was consistently good in 2019 but was unable to win at the top level. She has failed to complete a tournament win since the WTA Finals of 2018 and will be keen to change that soon.
Danielle Collins’ current ranking of 29 owes an awful lot to her huge run to the semifinals of the Australian Open in 2019. That run came as a surprise to most people and Collins struggled to back up this performance in the rest of the season. The American made only one further quarterfinal appearance in the whole season. In fact, she rounded off 2019 by being beaten in an ITF quarterfinal by Gabriela Talaba, ranked 317 in the world.
Svitolina should have too much class for the battling Collins in this first encounter between the pair. It would be good to see the Ukrainian come out and dominate the match by being aggressive, but either way she should be able to win this one.
Prediction: Svitolina in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
