One of the home country players in action on the first day of main draw singles at the 2023 WTA Livesport Prague Open will be Lucie Havlickova, the champion of 2022 Roland Garros in both girls’ singles and doubles. The 18-year-old takes on one of the veterans in this field, 33-year-old Alize Cornet. Who do you think will prevail in this generational battle? We also predict the rest of the day’s matches in a separate article.
WTA Prague Day 1 Predictions
Tamara Korpatsch vs Viktoriya Tomova
Head-to-head: Korpatsch 5-0
Tamara Korpatsch leads the head-to-head 5-0, although there don’t seem to be any glaring issues in the matchup for Viktoriya Tomova. The Bulgarian is generally the stronger outdoor hard court player, so maybe this is the perfect opportunity for her to grab that first win. She’ll need to find her rhythm on this surface quickly though as Korpatsch played through the qualifying here, giving her plenty of playtime in Prague already.
Prediction: Tomova in 3
Nao Hibino vs Sara Errani
Head-to-head: First meeting
Sara Errani won one game in her last two matches, getting blown off the court by very dangerous opposition in Qinwen Zheng and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Hard courts were never her best surface, but against someone like Nao Hibino a blowout shouldn’t be an option. Especially as the Japanese is actually here as a lucky loser and won just two games in the last two sets against Emiliana Arango herself. Errani might like this matchup.
Prediction: Errani in 3
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Alize Cornet vs Lucie Havlickova
Head-to-head: First meeting
Lucie Havlickova had some brilliant ITF results to start the year, but recently fell in a bit of a slump. The 2022 Roland Garros girls’ singles champion won a round here in 2022 thanks to a favorable draw (Barbora Palicova). She’s not quite as lucky in this edition with Alize Cornet, still going strong at 33 years of age. The Frenchwoman usually pushes through talented up-and-comers with how smart she is on the court and can use all that experience to her advantage.
Prediction: Cornet in 2
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
