Day 4 of the WTA Lyon tournament is upon us. Top seed Ekaterina Alexandrova was ousted early on by Danish teen Clara Tauson. However, the rest of the seeds in the tournament have looked solid so far. Several hometown favourites are still in with a chance of winning the the tournament, with two of the top four seeds in action on Thursday. Will the likes of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic move on? We take a look in our WTA Lyon day 4 predictions.
WTA Lyon Day 4 Predictions
Arantxa Rus vs Greet Minnen
Head-to-head: First meeting
Both Rus and Minnen advanced to the Round of 16 with straight sets wins in their first round matches. Minnen’s win was expected as she took on clay court specialist Kawa. Rus, however, did well to get past talented Chinese youngster Xiyu Wang. Both players will be hopeful of picking up more points by advancing to the next round and will feel confident of their chances in this match. Rus is the more experienced campaigner of the two, but Minnen has a game more suited to the indoor hard courts of Lyon. I suspect that will make the difference in what should be a close fought affair. This could go either way, but I think Minnen will sneak through.
Prediction: Minnen in 3
Clara Burel vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich
Head-to-head: First meeting
Burel picked up a quality win against Alize Cornet in the first round in what was a very up and down match match from the pair of French women. She now faces another stern test in Sasnovich, who was impressive in her first round win against Eugenie Bouchard. Sasnovich is a quality player when she is at her best. Her problem is she is not consistently at that level. If she is in this tournament she could well be a dark horse to take it. Burel is no slouch and certainly has a shot here, but I think Sasnovich showed enough in her first match to justify picking her to win again in this one.
Prediction: Sasnovich in 3
Kristina Mladenovic vs Margarita Gasparyan
Head-to-head: Mladenovic 0-1 Gasparyan
This one is tricky to call. Mladenovic is the better player and deserving favourite going into the match. However, the fact that she struggled against an out-of-form Buzarnescu in her last match perfectly encapsulates her problems in recent years. She is far too inconsistent, often seeing her game vanish in the middle of matches. She found it again just in time in the last round, but cannot afford a similar slip up against Gasparyan this time around. The Russian was impressive in dispatching Zavatska for the loss of just five games. She moved well and her backhand, which can sometimes be shaky, look reliable and free-flowing. Mladenovic should be one of the favourites to win this tournament, but until she shows she can string a week of good tennis together I can’t back her to do so. I think the Russian scores the upset here and moves on.
Prediction: Gasparyan in 3
Stefanie Voegele vs Paula Badosa Gilbert
Head-to-head: First meeting
Both Voegele and Badosa Gilbert made what should have been routine wins quite difficult in their last match ups. Both needed three sets to put away opponents they should have beaten comfortably. Hopefully their levels improve for this match or this one might be difficult to watch. I think Badosa Gilbert is a bit short on matches this year and should improve as the tournament goes on. She has a higher level to go to than Voegele and may well do well at this tournament considering how well she moves and how happy she is hugging the baseline and taking the ball early. I think the Spaniard moves on here and will be a tough out the longer she goes on in the tournament
Prediction: Badosa Gilbert in 3
Caroline Garcia vs Viktorija Golubic
Head-to-head: First meeting
Garcia is still far from her best level, but she seems to be trending in the right direction. She scored a good win against a tough opponent in Dodin in her last match and will be increasingly confident in her chances of winning this tournament. She faces an out-of-form Golubic who was taken the distance by Lapko, a player ranked outside the top 200 in the women’s game. Garcia is of a far greater pedigree and should win this comfortably if she is able to clean up some of the errors that saw her match with Dodin go the distance. Pick the hometown favourite to advance here and build up some confidence ahead of the quarterfinals.
Prediction: Garcia in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
