Olympic Silver Medalist Marketa Vondrousova takes to the court in Chicago on Monday. The Czech is one of several star players in the main draw of this tournament. She will be hoping to continue her strong second half of the season with a great showing here, as will several other players in the hunt for a WTA finals berth. How will she and the rest of the field playing on Monday get on? We answer that question in our WTA Chicago Classic Day 1 predictions. We also predict the rest of the day’s action, split between two other articles. One features Madison Keys vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich, and the second features Kim Clijsters vs Su-Wei Hsieh.
WTA Chicago Classic Day 1 Predictions
Jessica Pegula vs Magdalena Frech
Head-to-head: First meeting
Pegula will win this comfortably. The American is by far the better player of the two and has established herself as an elite player in the women’s game. The American also has the advantage of playing on home soil which is an added bonus and motivating factor. This should be a pretty one-sided affair if she plays anywhere near her best
Prediction: Pegula in 2
Veronika Kudermetova vs Anna Kalinskaya
Head-to-head: First meeting
Kudermetova is the better player of these two, but this is a tricky first round match for the Russian. Kalinskaya is a very capable player on her day and could very easily cause an upset here. If Kudermetova serves well and plays with enough margin she has more than enough power to blast her way through her opponent here. I expect that to happen, although I think she will need three sets to do it.
Prediction: Kudermetova in 3
Marie Bouzkova vs Misaki Doi
Head-to-head: First meeting
Bouzkova is the better player here but she is in a dismal run of form. Fortunately for her, Doi has been similarly poor in recent months and represents a great opportunity for the Czech to stop her slide and get back to winning ways. If Bouzkova plays well, she wins and I don’t like picking against the player who’s racket the match is on. The Czech star moves on here.
Prediction: Bouzkova in 2
Kateryna Kozlova vs Marta Kostyuk
Head-to-head: First meeting
Kostyuk is another one of the seemingly endless stream of teen stars taking the WTA tour by storm. She hasn’t had big stage success in the way Leylah Fernandez and Emma Raducanu have yet, but it looks to be a matter of when not if for the young Ukrainian. She certainly has more than enough to put away fellow countrywoman Kozlova in this first round match and I expect her to do exactly that.
Prediction: Kostyuk in 2
Marketa Vondrousova vs Ajla Tomljanovic
Head-to-head: 2 – 1 Tomljanovic
Vondrousova has been in superb form in recent months but this is a bad matchup for her. Tomljanovic has won both of their last meetings and appears to have the Czech’s number in recent months. The lefty is still the favourite and rightly so, but the Aussie is having a great year and this match has upset written all over it.
Prediction: Tomljanovic in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
