The WTA Palermo Open this week has no top 25 players in action, which will open the door for many players to dream of a rare title win at tour-level. At any rate, there should still be plenty of entertaining action for the fans and, as always, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match on the slate, including Irina-Camelia Begu vs Marina Bassols. But who will reach the second round?
WTA Palermo Day 1 Predictions
Zhang Shuai vs Rebeka Masarova
Head-to-head: first meeting
Both players have struggled on clay this year at WTA-level, but Rebeca Masarova did reach a final in Bastad at WTA 125k-level recently. She also made it through the qualifying here in Palermo, courtesy of three-set wins over Seone Mendez and Jaimee Fourlis, and should come into this match with some rhythm and confidence as a result. Zhang Shuai is, however, still the overall better player and should have too much in the end, although this is may well be a pretty tight encounter.
Prediction: Zhang in 3
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Ylena In-Albon vs Leolia Jeanjean
Head-to-head: first meeting
This is a relatively rare example of an encounter between two players outside the top 100 in a main draw of a WTA tournament. Both players will be highly motivated to try and make a run here, but on clay Leolia Jeanjean seems to have a bit of an edge. The Frenchwoman put together a decent run at Roland Garros a couple months ago, beating eighth seed Karolina Pliskova on her way to a third-round appearance in Paris. On this surface, she should have the edge over Ylena In-Albon, who is still finding her way on the main tour.
Prediction: Jeanjean in 2
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Jasmine Paolini vs Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
Head-to-head: Paolini 5-1 Schmiedlova
On paper, it should be a tight match between similar level players, but their previous matches show that Jasmine Paolini has clear advantage in this particular. The last of those six matches was played earlier this year in Melbourne, where Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova won the first set, but Paolini managed to turn it around and win in three. Perhaps more to the point, on clay, Paolini has won all four sets they played and she looks well-placed to extend that advantage tomorrow.
Prediction: Paolini in 2
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