The grand finale of the 2022 WTA season continues with its first round of round-robin matches on Day 2. Today’s play will cover the opening matches for players in the Tracy Austin Group, including World No. 1 Iga Swiatek beginning her Finals campaign. As always, we here at LWOT will preview and predict every match. Who do you think will win?
WTA Finals Day 2 Predictions
Iga Swiatek vs Daria Kasatkina
Head-to-head: Swiatek 4-1 Kasatkina
What more is to say about Swiatek’s season that has not been said? The dominant World No. 1 won eight titles this season, including two slams and four WTA 1000s, suffering just eight losses in 72 matches this season. The Pole enters Fort Worth as the player to beat and the biggest favorite by far.
The first player to attempt to take down Swiatek will be the eighth seed Daria Kasatkina. The 25-year-old has had a major season on and off the court, reaching the semifinals of the French Open, winning a WTA 500 in San Jose, returning to the Top 10, and also coming out as gay. The Russian’s recent form has not been great though, not winning back-to-back matches since her Granby title at the end of August. Last week, Kasatkina lost to Anna Kalinskaya in Guadalajara.
Though Kasatkina got the first win in their head-to-head last year in Eastbourne, Swiatek has dominated the Russian in their four meetings this season. The 21-year-old never dropped more than five games to Kasatkina in her wins over her at the Australian Open, Dubai, Doha, and the French Open. Expect Swiatek to deliver here once again.
Prediction: Swiatek in 2
Coco Gauff vs Caroline Garcia
Head-to-head: Gauff 2-1 Garcia
A very important match-up for these two players as they are likely to battle it out for the second spot in this group. Gauff has had a breakout season, entering the Finals at No. 4 in the rankings. The 18-year-old is the youngest participant at the WTA Finals since Maria Sharapova in 2004, who went on to win the event that year. Gauff’s year was largely built around her run to the French Open final but the American followed it up with quarterfinals at the US Open.
Garcia is by far the most surprising player at these Finals despite her previous appearance in 2017. The Frenchwoman had a couple of mediocre seasons behind her, coming into 2022 at No. 74 in the rankings. Garcia’s season did not really get going until grass, where she won her first title in three years in Bad Homburg before going on to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon. The 29-year-old continued her solid form on the post-Wimbledon clay stretch, beating Iga Swiatek en route to a Warsaw title, before she exploded on U.S. hard courts. Garcia won the Cincinnati title as a qualifier and beat Gauff en route to a US Open semifinal. The recent form has not been great though, winning just one of her last five matches.
Gauff leads the head-to-head with wins from Doha and last year’s Indian Wells, though Garcia won their most recent meeting at the US Open. As impressive as Garcia was during that stretch though, she has not shown that form since, so I will lean towards Gauff here.
Prediction: Gauff in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
