Day 1 at the WTA Prague Open brought an upset with third seed Elise Mertens falling at the first hurdle while Andrea Sestini Hlavackova extended her career by one more match at the very least. Day 2 will have the rest of the first-round matches, including top two seeds Anett Kontaveit and Barbora Krejcikova in action. As always, we here at LWOT will preview and predict every match. We have four other matches in a separate article. Who do you think will win?
WTA Prague Day 2 Predictions
Daria Snigur vs Viktoriya Tomova
Head-to-head: first meeting
Snigur is having a decent season with a 21-14 record but is playing her first tournament back from an injury that forced her to retire in the first set of a quarterfinal match in Palma Del Rio. The Ukrainian will likely have some rust to shake off and a tricky opponent to do it against in Tomova. The Bulgarian has had some decent runs this year, reaching the final of an ITF 80 in Oeiras, semifinals of a WTA 125 in Bastad, and quarterfinals of the WTA 500 in Eastbourne. With Snigur in a bit of a limbo, Tomova should be a favorite here.
Prediction: Tomova in 2
Barbora Palicova vs Lucie Havlickova
Head-to-head: Palicova 1-0 Havlickova
A battle of two Czech teenagers here. Palicova is 37-15 0n the year and won her first pro title at an ITF 15 in Antalya in January. The 18-year-old had a very strong showing in qualifying as well, beating Viktoria Kuzmova in straight sets before taking out Yanina Wickmayer and now making her WTA main draw debut. Havlickova earned herself a wildcard with her junior results, winning both singles and doubles at the French Open, rising to No. 2 in the junior rankings. It will be an interesting test for both the youngsters and a chance to show off their games to the home crowd. I am leaning towards Palicova here as she won their previous meeting last year and has earned more impressive wins over pro players so far.
Prediction: Palicova in 3
Anastasia Potapova vs Xinyu Wang
Head-to-head: first meeting
Potapova is having quite the season, winning her first WTA title as a qualifier in Istanbul in April. The 21-year-old has been strong in July as well, reaching back-to-back semifinals in Lausanne and Hamburg. Outside of an ITF 100 title from La Bisbal, Wang has not had a great season. The 20-year-old will be looking to recapture some form from her semifinal run here last year, where she only lost to the eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova. On current form though, Potapova has to be the favorite.
Prediction: Potapova in 2
Anett Kontaveit vs Ekaterine Gorgodze
Head-to-head: first meeting
Top seed Kontaveit has had an interesting year, taking early losses at all three Slams this season but winning St Petersburg and reaching finals in Doha and Hamburg. There might be some fatigue for the Estonian as the Hamburg run was just last week but none of her matches went three sets so it would be a bit of a surprise. Gorgodze, who has not won back-to-back matches since the first week of May, should not be too much of a threat here. The Georgian has developed a reputation for bringing the drama but Kontaveit’s cool demeanor and superior level will likely prevail.
Prediction: Kontaveit in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
