Madison Keys will return to one of her favourite hunting grounds as she looks to make it a hat-trick of titles at WTA Eastbourne, as she squares up against Australian youngster Talia Gibson. It is one of the five matches we examine in this piece as the WTA 250 enters its second day. As always, we offer our predictions on who will advance to the next round. But who will advance?
WTA Eastbourne Day 2 Predictions
Laura Siegemund vs Sara Bejlek
Head–to–Head: Siegemund 1 – 0 Bejlek
Laura Siegemund enters as the fifth seed at Eastbourne, and her grass-court CV heading into Devonshire Park is as well-stocked as anyone in the draw. She is a seasoned grass-court operator: flat, precise, and capable of disrupting rhythm in ways that clay specialists find deeply uncomfortable. That is precisely the problem for Sara Bejlek, because Bejlek is, at heart, a clay specialist. She hasn’t won a main draw match on grass, and that surface split tells you almost everything about how this match is likely to go. Siegemund, who understands the geometry of grass better than most, will move through this one with authority.
Prediction: Siegemund in 3
Yuliia Starodubtseva vs Anastasia Zakharova
Head–to–Head: First Meeting
Yuliia Starodubtseva and Anastasia Zakharova are two of the more interesting stories of this year’s women’s tennis. Yet, the differences between them, as this grass-court swing reaches its penultimate act before Wimbledon, are telling. Her best surface is undoubtedly clay, and the shift to the lawns of Eastbourne moves her slightly off her most comfortable terrain. She beat world No. 2 Elena Rybakina on her way to the third round at Roland Garros in May, but results since the clay swing ended have been mixed, and she comes into Eastbourne without a particularly sharp grass-court foundation.
Zakharova, meanwhile, carries a profile that screams hard court, though she showed in 2025 that she could compete at Wimbledon and Queen’s Club when the conditions suited her.
This is a match between two players discovering themselves on grass rather than commanding it, but with two solid qualifying wins in her tail, I’ll lean towards the Russian advance at WTA Eastbourne.
Prediction: Zakharova in 3
Janice Tjen vs Caty McNally
Head–to–Head: First Meeting
On paper, this is the seeded player against the unseeded one, but the story grass tells is rather different. Janice Tjen is vastly inexperienced on the surface; the Indonesian had never played on grass before this year, and that is a significant handicap at WTA Eastbourne, where the low bounce and skidding ball demand instincts forged over years of lawn-court apprenticeship, not weeks.
McNally, by contrast, is a newly minted top-50 player for the first time in her career and has all the technique that grass rewards. Expect McNally to control the tempo from the baseline, dictate with her flat groundstrokes, and close this out comfortably.
Prediction: McNally in 2
Madison Keys vs Talia Gibson
Head–to–Head: First Meeting
This is a mismatch on paper that the grass is unlikely to paper over. Keys is a two-time WTA Eastbourne champion, having won the title in 2014 and 2023, and the kind of surface CV that demands respect.
Gibson is no pushover, having reached the Nottingham quarterfinals by beating Qinwen Zheng before losing to Karolína Plíšková, but that is her ceiling on this surface at this moment, and Keys on her favoured lawn at a tournament she has owned twice is an entirely different challenge.
The two have never met at tour level before, removing any psychological baggage from the equation, and with Keys openly channeling the comfort and confidence she draws from WTA Eastbourne, the American should control this match and see it out quickly.
Prediction: Keys in 2
Tatjana Maria vs Jasmine Paolini
Head–to–Head: Maria 1 – 2 Paolini
Jasmine Paolini arrives as the top seed but carrying the rust of nearly a month without competitive tennis, having not played since losing in the second round of the French Open to Solana Sierra, and will step onto grass for the first time this season at Eastbourne, a dangerous state of affairs against an opponent who has been on tour lawns all fortnight.
Tatjana Maria is 6-3 on grass this season, reached the Nottingham quarterfinal last week with wins over Janice Tjen and Dayana Yastremska. Specifically on grass, Maria holds the lead in their head-to-head on the surface. While Paolini is the more complete tennis player, and on her best day, her relentless work ethic overwhelms opponents on any surface, best days don’t arrive on demand after month-long breaks.
The veteran’s grass-court fluency and freshness of legs should prove just enough to send the top seed out in the first round of WTA Eastbourne.
Prediction: Maria in 2
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane – USA TODAY Sports
