{"id":107099,"date":"2026-06-21T18:57:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T22:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=107099"},"modified":"2026-06-21T18:57:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T22:57:27","slug":"wta-eastbourne-predictions-kessler-kasatkina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/06\/21\/wta-eastbourne-predictions-kessler-kasatkina\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Eastbourne Day 1 Predictions Including McCartney Kessler vs Daria Kasatkina"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 51st edition of the WTA 250 event in Eastbourne<\/a> gets underway on Monday, with the last two champions in the queue to play on a busy day in England<\/a>. Penultimate winner Daria Kasatkina will face McCartney Kessler, while defending champion Maya Joint will slug it out with Emiliana Arango. As always, we at LWOT offer our predictions on who will progress to the next round.<\/p>\n

WTA Eastbourne Day 1 Predictions<\/h2>\n

Elisabetta Cocciaretto vs Ajla Tomljanovic<\/h4>\n

Head\u2013to\u2013Head: <\/strong>First Meeting<\/p>\n

Ajla Tomljanovic arrives at Eastbourne riding the best wave of form she’s caught in years. Three wins over Top 60 opponents in ‘s-Hertogenbosch propelled her back inside the Top 100, and her grass-court game, built on aggressive serving and flat, penetrating groundstrokes, looks sharp and purposeful heading into this first-round clash, especially with two solid qualifying wins under her belt already.<\/p>\n

Elisabetta Cocciaretto, seeded eighth at Devonshire Park, comes in with genuine grass-court pedigree, but her form entering this week has been quieter than Tomljanovic’s recent momentum suggests.<\/p>\n

With Tomljanovic dialed in, serving well, and clearly believing in herself again, the Australian’s momentum edge feels like the decisive factor here.
\nPrediction: Tomljanovic in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Maya Joint vs Emiliana Arango<\/h4>\n

Head\u2013to\u2013Head<\/strong>: First Meeting<\/p>\n

Eastbourne is where defending champion Maya Joint first truly convinced herself grass belonged to her after saving four championship points in last year\u2019s final against Alexandra Eala, and that kind of baptism doesn’t leave you. Her most recent grass-court outing in Nottingham ended in a loss to Yuliia Starodubtseva, so she arrives needing a statement, not just a win.<\/p>\n

Standing across the net is Emiliana Arango, whose game is built on clay but looked solid in qualifying without dropping a set.<\/p>\n

The contrast here is stark: Joint has a title on this very turf and the instincts of a grass-court player still finding the full range of her ability; Arango is a determined, scrappy baseline competitor who generates break opportunities but has yet to solve the peculiarities of the low bounce and unpredictable bounce. Expect Joint to serve with authority, press the net when the opportunity arises, and close this one out just because it’s Eastbourne.
\nPrediction: Joint in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

McCartney Kessler vs Daria Kasatkina<\/h4>\n

Head\u2013to\u2013Head: <\/strong>Kasatkina 1 \u2013 0 Kessler<\/p>\n

Former Eastbourne champion Daria Kasatkina walks into Devonshire Park carrying the weight of familiarity, but familiarity can be a double-edged sword when your ranking has slipped and your form has been inconsistent. The 29-year-old won this title in 2024, yet the momentum that once made her a grass-court threat has been harder to locate this season.<\/p>\n

Kessler, meanwhile, suffered a shock first-round loss in Nottingham to compatriot Katie Volynets as the defending champion. That early exit stings, but it also means her legs are fresh for Eastbourne, and their only prior meeting went to Kasatkina, though grass changes everything.<\/p>\n

The American’s big serve, flat groundstrokes, and natural aggression suit the surface well, and there’s an argument she’s the better-suited player right now despite the history between them. Expect a tight, combative first set, but Kessler’s power game to ultimately wear Kasatkina down and edge through over the distance.
\nPrediction:<\/em> Kessler in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Taya Gray\/The Desert Sun \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 51st edition of the WTA 250 event in Eastbourne gets underway on Monday, with the last two champions in the queue to play on a busy day in England. Penultimate winner Daria Kasatkina will face McCartney Kessler, while defending champion Maya Joint will slug it out with Emiliana Arango. As always, we at LWOT […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4883,"featured_media":83123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[16071,15654,24241,15436,5874,15921,15201,18737,42392,42393,41787,41786,2373,2369,16111],"class_list":["post-107099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-ajla-tomjlanovic","tag-ajla-tomljanovic-predictions","tag-daria-kasaktina","tag-daria-kasatkina-predictions","tag-elisabetta-cocciaretto","tag-elisabetta-cocciaretto-predictions","tag-emiliana-arango","tag-emiliana-arango-predictions","tag-maya-joint","tag-maya-joint-predictions","tag-mccartney-kessler","tag-mccartney-kessler-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-eastbourne-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107099"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107127,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107099\/revisions\/107127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}