With the start of the French Open now just days away, there shouldn’t be any shortage of motivation for the players left in the draw at the WTA Strasbourg Open. All will surely be hoping to book their place in the quarterfinals to maintain momentum ahead of the second Major of the year. There are six second-round matches on the slate on day four in Alsace and, as ever, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match, including Yulia Putintseva vs Jil Teichmann. But who will advance?
WTA Strasbourg Day 4 Predictions
Sorana Cirstea vs Shuai Zhang
Head-to-head: Cirstea 1-0 Zhang
This looks like being a tough test for the sixth-seeded Zhang Shuai. The Chinese is not at her best on the red clay with the majority of her success having come on hard courts, although she did reach the second week in Paris for the first time in her career last season. Unfortunately, she arrived at the WTA Strasbourg International in dreadful form. In fact, Zhang’s last win before this week came in the third round at last year’s French Open.
But after first-round defeats in Madrid, Rome and Belgrade to start her clay-court season, she finally snapped a nine-match losing streak by beating Misaki Doi of Japan 7-5 6-4. Still, it is hard to see her getting the better of Sorana Cirstea, who has had a largely impressive 2021 so far and looked sharp in beating Venus Williams 6-1 2-6 6-1 in a see-sawing first-round encounter. It is encouraging for Zhang to finally get a win in her column, but Cirstea should prove too strong here.
Prediction: Cirstea in 2
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Harmony Tan vs Arantxa Rus
Head-to-head: Tan 1-1 Rus
Harmony Tan, despite turning professional nine years ago in 2012, has struggled to make an impact on the WTA Tour so far in her career. But she played some very fine tennis last time out in Saint-Malo, beating Wang Yafan, Arantxa Rus and Aliona Bolsova en route to the semifinals, where she lost to eventual champion Viktorija Golubic. She backed that up in the first round this week, beating the veteran Alison Van Uytvanck in straight sets.
Rus, meanwhile, has been inconsistent for much of this year, despite some good wins, but enjoyed perhaps her best week of the year in La Bisbal d’Emporda last time out, making the final at an ITF-event. But Tan has been playing well enough on the clay this year, thanks in large part to her excellent court-coverage, to suggest that she can best Rus again. Expect this to be a closer contest than their meeting in Saint-Malo, but for Tan to emerge victorious once again.
Prediction: Tan in 3
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Barbora Krejcikova vs Caroline Garcia
Head-to-head: Garcia 1-0 Krejcikova
This has the potential to be the match of day four at the WTA Strasbourg International. Their only previous meeting, which came in 2017 in Bastad, was certainly entertaining, with Caroline Garcia eventually emerging a 6-2 4-6 7-5 winner. The pre-match roles will be reversed this time around, with Barbora Krejcikova the seeded player and the favourite on paper. The Czech is coming off a solid week in Rome, where she beat Sofia Kenin en route to the third round and held match points against Iga Swiatek.
Not much about where her game is at this week can be ascertained from her first-round clash with Oceane Dodin – the Frenchwoman retired trailing 3-6 0-3 – but one imagines it was a welcome victory after falling just short against Swiatek. Garcia’s level in her 7-5 6-2 win over Zarina Diyas suggests that she will be competitive in this match at the very least. Still Krejcikova has been the more consistent performer in recent months and should have just about enough to account for the Frenchwoman.
Prediction: Krejcikova in 3
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