The remainder of the first round matchups will be completed on Day 2 of the WTA Sydney Classic. Tuesday’s play is headlined by an exciting matchup between Elena Rybakina and Emma Raducanu, two of the tour’s most exciting young players. Who will secure their spot in the second round?
WTA Sydney Day 2 Predictions
Jessica Pegula vs Caroline Garcia
H2H: Pegula 2-0
Jessica Pegula’s 2022 singles campaign got off to an unfortunate start in Melbourne last week. The American was the top seed in the Melbourne 2 draw where she was eliminated in the opening round by Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets (6-7 3-6). It still turned out to be a good week for Pegula as she teamed up with Asia Muhammad to win the doubles title. Caroline Garcia also suffered a first round exit in Melbourne, a straight set loss at the hands of Anastasija Sevastova (4-6 4-6). This therefore becomes an important match, with both players looking to avoid heading into the Australian Open with back-to-back first round exits to their names.
Pegula easily defeated Garcia in their most recent meeting, a 6-3 6-1 victory at Wimbledon last year. The pair’s respective careers have been traveling in opposing directions in recent times, Pegula had her best season in 2021, whilst Garcia continued to struggle. Pegula is the obvious pick based on form, but Garcia’s best tennis is more than capable in this matchup. I can’t pick Garcia with any confidence at the moment, so I’ll side with Pegula who is likely to made like tough for the Frenchwoman with her solid style, as was the case in their Wimbledon meeting last year.
Prediction: Pegula in 3
Giuliana Olmos vs Oceane Dodin
H2H: First meeting
A matchup between a pair of qualifiers, a huge opportunity for both, particularly Dodin. With a world ranking of #685 Olmos is the lowest ranked player to qualify for the main draw in Sydney. The Mexican claimed three set wins over Panna Udvardy and Diane Parry. Meanwhile, Dodin secured her spot in the main draw with straight set wins over Isabella Bozicevic and Magdalena Frech. Dodin should be able to make the most of this opportunity, the 25-year-old is ranked almost 600 places above Olmos for a reason, she is class above. Olmos is almost exclusively a doubles player. Another victory for her this week in singles would be quite shocking. Dodin to prevail.
Prediction: Dodin in 2
Fiona Ferro vs Elise Mertens
H2H: 1-1
Elise Mertens will begin her 2022 season against Fiona Ferro. Ferro was awarded a spot in the main draw as a lucky-loser having lost her final round qualifying match to Elena-Gabriela Ruse in straight sets. It has been a poor start to the year for Ferro was succumbed in the first round of qualifying in Melbourne last week, losing to Aliona Bolsova in straight sets. This looks like a great opportunity for Mertens to make a positive start to her campaign. Ferro looks to be struggling at the moment and will be in trouble against the solid Belgian.
Prediction: Mertens in 2
Elena Rybakina vs Emma Raducanu
H2H: First meeting.
Elena Rybakina arrives in Sydney with confidence after reaching her 8th WTA singles final at the Adelaide International. The week didn’t end as she would have liked as she was comfortably beaten by Ash Barty in the final. There was little shame in that result, though, as there aren’t too many players that could have challenged Barty on the day. The Kazakh will look to build on the momentum she built in Adelaide this week in Sydney before heading to Melbourne for the first Grand Slam of the year.
Emma Raducanu will be in action for the first time in 2022. Raducanu’s 2021 US Open triumph was one of the biggest stories of the year, it will be interesting to see if Raducanu can live up to the hype she has created for herself in 2022. The 19-year-old’s preparations for the Aussie summer weren’t ideal as she tested positive for COVID-19 in December, causing her to rearrange her preparations.
This is a matchup of contrasting styles. The aggressive, flat, first-strike tennis of Rybakina against the counter-punching of Raducanu. Rybakina’s execution will determine the result. I’ll side with Rybakina here based on her positive week in Adelaide and Raducanu’s potential to be rusty in her first match of the season.
Prediction: Rybakina in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
