Simona Halep’s comeback continues and the former WTA No. 1 is the main headline in Hong Kong this week. The Romanian will play her fifth match of the season against No. 6 seed Yue Yuan. Who do you think will come out on top? We also predict the rest of the day’s matches in a separate article.
WTA Hong Kong Day 1 Predictions
Priscilla Hon vs Eudice Chong
Head-to-head: Hon 1-0
As fate would have it, these two also squared off in the opening round last year. Priscilla Hon won that match 7-5 7-5, but it was a good effort from the local wild card. A year later neither has made any significant progress in their careers and it seems like Hon’s playstyle can allow Chong to at least hang with her again. But the Hong Kong native has been struggling recently and finds herself on six losses in a row now. She’ll need some home-crowd magic if she is to prevail.
Prediction: Hon in 2
Margarita Betova vs Han Shi
Head-to-head: First meeting
Margarita Betova (nee Gasparyan)’s career has been destroyed by injuries and she’s still looking for her first win since March 2021. She’s lost eighteen straight matches since and the small silver lining is that only two of them happened this year. Last week against Emina Bektas in Guangzhou, she almost took the second set. Maybe that’s naive, but isn’t this a match Betova can win? Han Shi is solid if unspectacular and the Russian might still have some one-handed backhand blasts left.
Prediction: Betova in 3
Simona Halep vs Yue Yuan
Head-to-head: First meeting
Simona Halep’s return has been all about slow steps so far and while she defeated Arina Rodionova at the WTA 125 event in Hong Kong at the beginning of October, Anna Blinkova served her a pretty rough defeat. She’ll need to be sharper to defeat Yue Yuan and we just don’t know how much she was able to improve while practicing the last few weeks. The favorite, albeit tentatively, is the Chinese, who was brilliant in this part of the season last year and has a high ceiling when the forehand is on.
Prediction: Yuan in 3
Main Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
