The tournament is starting to heat up now with every player in the main draw having been in action now. Some favorites have fallen away, others have been pushed hard but there are quality matches all the way in the women’s draw. As always, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match on the slate. We look at four matches in this article and four in a separate article. But who will book their place in the next round?
Indian Wells Day 6 Predictions
Viktorija Golubic vs Jasmine Paolini
Head-to-head: Golubic 2-0 Paolini
There are a lot of reasons to believe that this will be a very tightly contested match. Though the Swiss leads the head-to-head and defeated Paolini very comfortably in the last of these in 2021, that encounter was on clay. Their hard court records for the last year are very similar indeed, around 61% hold rate and 41% break rate each. Paolini produced a superb display in the previous round to knockout Aryna Sabalenka in three sets and that win suggests that the Italian could be the form player here and she is the one to side with.
Prediction: Paolini in 3
Maria Sakkari vs Petra Kvitova
Head-to-head: Sakkari 3-3 Kvitova
The Greek produced a typically solid display to get past the talented Czech Katerina Siniakova in the last round. She has been pretty solid throughout the season so far but still has a concern in the biggest matches of not being able to finish them off. Whilst this is an important match against a big player I doubt that those gremlins will appear at this stage.
Kvitova had a tough match against Sasnovich in the first round and despite showing some signs of life recently, the former Wimbledon champion is beginning to look like she is just off the standard required at the very top of the game. Sakkari won their encounter last season fairly comfortably and I am expecting something similar tomorrow.
Prediction: Sakkari in 2
Paula Badosa vs Sara Sorribes Tormo
Head-to-head: Badosa 3-2 Sorribes Tormo
The Spaniard is, of course, the defending champion in the desert and, as such, is defending a lot of ranking points. This should provide a lot of motivation for her this week. If her game is en pointe then this could be a straightforward match for her.
Badosa has won the last two matches between these two and done so very comfortably. Though Sorribes Tormo has improved a lot over recent seasons she is not equipped to handle a game like Badosa’s in terms of movement and returning groundstrokes with enough interest. Badosa to win is the way to go here.
Prediction: Badosa in 2
Leylah Fernandez vs Shelby Rogers
Head-to-head: Rogers 3-1 Fernandez
These two will be sick of the sight of each other. This will be their fifth meeting in 10 months and, especially Fernandez will not have been pleased to see Rogers’ name coming up next in the draw.
All four previous matches have come on the hard courts, indeed the last one was at Indian Wells, so all are relevant. Even though Rogers has won three, two of them were in final set tie breaks. Therefore we have every right to expect another tight match here with fine margins to separate the two.
One of those margins may be slight fatigue for Fernandez. Having come to this tournament off the back of a long, though positive, week in Mexico, Fernandez may begin to feel a little tired. I think Rogers may just be able to repeat the trick here and win a long match.
Prediction: Rogers in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
