This week’s WTA event in Bogota features an unusually weak field, with even unranked wild cards in the draw and the highest seed ranked #39. This should provide an excellent opportunity for some players to have a real breakthrough and maybe even win a WTA title. Despite the lack of big names, it should still be a very exciting tournament.
WTA Bogota Day 1 Predictions
Valentina Mediorreal Arias vs Kamilla Rakhimova
Head-to-head: first meeting
Arias is actually unranked and there’s pretty much no information about her game, so it is quite of difficult to predict what she might bring to the table in this match. However, she’s facing a Top 100 player in Rakhimova and as such she shouldn’t have much of a chance to even make this competitive.
Prediction: Rakhimova in 2
Renata Zarazua vs Mariana Isabel Higuita Barraza
Head-to-head: first meeting
Just like in the previous match, we have an unranked player in Barraza and the lack of information about her game makes this a potentially tricky to get a good read on, but one would have to imagine that the #102 Zarazua has a very clear edge here and it would be extremely surprising if this match didn’t end up with a routine win for the Mexican.
Prediction: Barraza in 2
Katarina Zavatska vs Irina Bara
Head-to-head: Bara 3-2 Zavatska
#174 vs #179, a match that should be extremely close as the ranking suggests. Their five previous matchups all happened before November 2019, so they hardly have much predictive value here. Zavatska will be confident after having a very nice run through qualifying and that might just be enough to make the difference in such a tight matchup.
Prediction: Zavatska in 3
Jule Niemeier vs Nuria Brancaccio
Head-to-head: first meeting
Brancaccio had a nice run through qualifying, even beating a higher ranked player to make the main draw, and she should have a lot of confidence going in here. However, Niemeier is generally the better, more solid player and should have a slight edge, although this is likely to be a close match either way.
Prediction: Niemeier in 2
Cristina Bucsa vs Xiaodi You
Head-to-head: Bucsa 1-0 You
Bucsa is actually the 4th seed in this tournament, making her one of the favorites to win the title theoretically. However, she comes into Bogota on the back of a four-match losing streak; she has a nice draw here though and should be able to at least snap that losing streak in this first round.
Prediction: Bucsa in 2
Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
