The main draw action of the WTA singles event at the 2023 Italian Open kicks off on Tuesday with twelve first-round matches. One of the most interesting ones includes Kaia Kanepi and Marketa Vondrousova, who was a semifinalist at this event three years ago. We also predict the rest of the day’s matches in two other articles. One features Aliaksandra Sasnovich vs Leylah Fernandez and the second features Jasmine Paolini vs Xinyu Wang. Who do you think will come out on top?
WTA Rome Day 1 Predictions Including
Caty McNally vs Dalila Spiteri
Head-to-head: First meeting
What a chance for Dalila Spiteri, who won the wild card in the pre-qualifying event for Italian players. The 26-year-old peaked at World No. 434 in the WTA Rankings and this is really something absolutely unprecedented for her. While there are much tougher draws in the field than Caty McNally (especially on clay), the American still did quite well at Reus last week and should have a bit too much quality here.
Prediction: McNally in 2
Diletta Cherubini vs Lisa Pigato
Head-to-head: First meeting
Interesting battle of Italian youngsters with both getting their first opportunity to play in Rome. Lisa Pigato is the more interesting prospect and has been able to score some nice wins in ITF events in Santa Margherita di Pula recently (Deborah Chiesa, Yuliya Hatouka, Lina Gjorcheska), while the one-year-older Diletta Cherubini has generally struggled to grab any victories in the last couple of weeks.
Prediction: Pigato in 3
Jule Niemeier vs Nuria Parrizas-Diaz
Head-to-head: First meeting
Jule Niemeier’s results still don’t make much sense as despite her talent, the German tends to have long streaks of losing in the opening rounds. She has been on top of her game the last couple of weeks though. Now the question becomes whether she can take her disposition from the faster clay in Stuttgart and Madrid elsewhere. With the confidence she’s picked up and against an opponent who also likes playing aggressively, maybe she can.
Prediction: Niemeier in 3
Kaia Kanepi vs Marketa Vondrousova
Head-to-head: Vondrousova 2-0
Marketa Vondrousova’s comeback trail is going to speed up a lot soon, because we’re entering that part of the season where she was out with an injury last year and won’t be defending any points. The Czech suffered a pretty disappointing exit (for her clay standards) to Magda Linette in Madrid. The conditions in Rome suit her much better though and it doesn’t seem like Kaia Kanepi will provide much of a challenge, especially in what’s been a very uninspiring campaign from the 37-year-old so far.
Prediction: Vondrousova in 2
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
