A location that is known to tennis hipsters as a site of a copious number of ITFs every season, Monastir is now hosting its first WTA Tour-level event with home star Ons Jabeur at the top of the draw. The Tunisian and other stars of the event like Veronika Kudermetova or Petra Martic will play their openers Tuesday. As always, we here at LWOT will preview and predict every match. Who do you think will win?
WTA Monastir Day 2 Predictions
Anastasia Potapova vs Mirra Andreeva
Head-to-head: first meeting
Potapova has had a solid season on the main tour, keeping herself around World No. 50 in the rankings. The Russian won her first WTA title in Istanbul earlier this season and went on to reach another final in Prague. Andreeva, a 15-year-old Junior No. 12, is set to make her WTA main draw debut as a wild card recipient here.
The young Russian has had a very promising season, reaching the quarterfinals at Junior Roland Garros and US Open and winning three ITF titles this season. Andreeva is certainly one to watch going forward and it will be interesting how she looks against a solid main tour player in Potapova, a former promising junior herself as she reached the No. 1 ranking back in 2016. The 21-year-old should take care of business, though.
Prediction: Potapova in 2
Magdalena Frech vs Yasmine Mansouri
Head-to-head: first meeting
Frech has had a tough season on the main tour, struggling for wins week in, week out. The Pole enters on a three-match losing streak but gets a nice opportunity to break it in Monastir with a favorable draw. Mansouri has got 45 wins in 71 matches but they have been largely at ITF 15s, winning just one title. The 21-year-old has risen to her career-high of 574 in the rankings but does have an interesting edge over Frech, which is familiarity. Mansouri has already played 20 tournaments in M0nastir this season, spending the large majority of the season there. Despite that, Frech’s level should be too high here.
Prediction: Frech in 2
Tamara Zidansek vs Marina Bassols Ribera
Head-to-head: first meeting
After a solid start to the season for Zidansek, reaching a semifinal in Adelaide and a third round at the Australian Open, the Slovenian struggled for the rest of it. The 24-year-old could not defend her French Open semifinal successfully and after a 14-19 season, has now dropped out of the Top 100. Last week, Zidansek took a straight-set loss to Simona Waltert in Parma.
Bassols Ribera has been pretty strong on the ITF circuit, going 37-21 and winning an ITF 60 while reaching the final of another one. This week, the Spaniard started in qualifying, coming back from a set down against Olivia Tjandramulia and getting a win after retirement from Harmony Tan after the first set of their match. Zidansek has been out of form but Bassols Ribera’s performances in qualifying were not very convincing, so I will lean towards the Slovene on this occasion.
Prediction: Zidansek in 2
Petra Martic vs Linda Fruhvirtova
Head-to-head: first meeting
Likely the most even and most exciting match-up of the day, with the experienced Martic facing the rising star of Fruhvirtova. The two come in with very solid records, Martic going 32-19 while the young Czech has gone 27-16, but their seasons have been quite different. The 31-year-old has had solid performances throughout the year, including an Indian Wells quarterfinal, Wimbledon fourth round, and her third career WTA title in Lausanne. Last week, Martic looked good again as she took out Karolina Pliskova en route to a quarterfinal in Tokyo.
Fruhvirtova started 2022 at No. 279 in the rankings, now rising over 200 spots and getting a guaranteed main draw entry into the Australian Open. The 17-year-old started her season with an ITF 25 title in Cancun before bursting onto the scene with a fourth-round run in Miami. Fruhvirtova then did not get another deep run until the US Open, where she successfully qualified for her first slam main draw and got a win before losing to Garbine Muguruza. The Czech would then get the first WTA title of her career in Chennai just two weeks later.
Fruhvirtova was the top seed in qualifying this week, getting a bye before saving three match points against Rebeka Masarova to qualify. It’s a close call but I will go with Martic here, more used to the week-in, week-out grind of the tour. The Croat also has not taken a first-round loss since Eastbourne in June.
Prediction: Martic in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
