The green clay in Charleston is taking names already this week with Petra Kvitova, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, and Ana Konjuh falling at the first hurdle on Day 1. Some of the big seeds will be hoping to avoid that fate on Day 2. Who else will make it into the second round?
WTA Charleston Day 2 Predictions
Sophie Chang vs Ajla Tomljanovic
Head-to-head: First meeting
Chang will be delighted to have qualified for a WTA500 event for the first time. She did make an appearance here in a Challenger event but lost in the opening round to Lauren Davis. The American does come in on a seven-match winning streak on clay though having won an ITF title in January on clay. She may need more than that to beat a player over 300 ranking spots ahead of her though. Tomljanovic isn’t usually the most reliable and is in poor form, but will likely use the dawn of the clay season to draw a line in the dirt and start her season again. I think she’ll begin with a win here.
Prediction: Tomljanovic in 2
Yulia Putintseva vs Robin Anderson
Head-to-head: First meeting
The Kazakh will see the change of surface as a real chance at a fresh start this year. Though she hasn’t been poor this year, clay is generally her best surface and her movement is best serviced on the dirt. Anderson has a middling record on the surface and has had rare exposure to it at WTA level, this will be her sixth match on clay in a year, compared with Putintseva’s 19th. I expect this to be break heavy with Putintseva having the advantage and possibly breaking more times than Anderson manages to hold.
Prediction: Putintseva in 2
Xiyu Wang vs Belinda Bencic
Head-to-head: First meeting
It will be interesting to see how Bencic backs up after her deep run in Miami. In essence the Swiss has everything required to do well in these conditions, good movement and a crisp technique. Bencic also has a quarterfinal and semifinal at this tournament on her resume so should she feel healthy the tenth seed has the opportunity to go well here. Wang cannot be ruled out easily though. Clay is actually the Chinese’s best surface by win percentage, but she is still very inexperienced on the surface, and especially on this American version of it, and she might just fall short of the standard required in this match.
Prediction: Bencic in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
