{"id":108384,"date":"2026-07-13T22:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=108384"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:18:17","slug":"wta-athens-day-2-predictions-tauson-hibino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/07\/13\/wta-athens-day-2-predictions-tauson-hibino\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Athens Day 2 Predictions Including Clara Tauson vs Nao Hibino"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight matches are scheduled for Day 2 at the 2026 Athens Open<\/a>. No. 1 seed and huge talent Clara Tauson is among those who will take to the court. Four of the contests on the slate, including 2025 Wimbledon<\/a> champion Barbora Krejcikova vs Viktoriya Tomova, are predicted in a separate article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WTA Athens Day 2 Predictions<\/h2>\n

Aoi Ito vs Alina Korneeva<\/h4>\n

Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\n

Korneeva is undoubtedly the more talented player. When the 19-year-old finds her range on a hard court, she can compete with anyone outside the Top 20. Ito is steadier and will try to prevail by bringing a solid level. Korneeva’s inconsistency means that it could happen, but I feel the 19-year-old will find enough imposing groundstrokes to get over the line.
\nPrediction: Korneeva in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Rebeka Masarova vs Carole Monnet<\/h4>\n

Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\n

Masarova’s overall record as a player is more impressive. I would only be tempted to back Monnet if she had been playing above her usual level in recent months. Instead, the Frenchwoman has mostly struggled in recent times, and Masarova will likely reach the round of 16 in Athens.
\nPrediction: Masarova in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Ann Li vs Maria Timofeeva<\/h4>\n

Head-to-head: Li 3-0 Timofeeva<\/p>\n

Li had few issues against Timofeeva in their previous meetings. The American’s powerful forehand is capable of causing most WTA players problems, but it represents a particularly bad matchup for Timofeeva, whose own forehand was totally overwhelmed in those three defeats. The 22-year-old will try to use her own backhand effectively, but I expect Li to get a fourth consecutive victory over Timofeeva.
\nPrediction: Li in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Clara Tauson vs Nao Hibino<\/h4>\n

Head-to-head: Tauson 2-1 Hibino<\/p>\n

Hibino’s sole triumph over Tauson was several years ago, and the Dane has beaten her twice since. The lower-ranked player will likely take more encouragement from Tauson’s recent results. Aside from a quarterfinal appearance at the Bad Homburg Open, she has severely struggled since playing well at the Dubai Championships in February. Tauson is still the most likely winner, but the result is not a foregone conclusion.
\nPrediction: Tauson in 3\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight matches are scheduled for Day 2 at the 2026 Athens Open. No. 1 seed and huge talent Clara Tauson is among those who will take to the court. Four of the contests on the slate, including 2025 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova vs Viktoriya Tomova, are predicted in a separate article. WTA Athens Day 2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4708,"featured_media":60065,"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":[41670,41669,10120,15969,42554,42555,17655,17656,11133,15422,19021,19022,826,15427,16695,16696,2373,2369,43906],"class_list":["post-108384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alina-korneeva","tag-alina-korneeva-predictions","tag-ann-li","tag-ann-li-predictions","tag-aoi-ito","tag-aoi-ito-predictions","tag-carole-monnet","tag-carole-monnet-predictions","tag-clara-tauson","tag-clara-tauson-predictions","tag-maria-timofeeva","tag-maria-timofeeva-predictions","tag-nao-hibino","tag-nao-hibino-predictions","tag-rebeka-masarova","tag-rebeka-masarova-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-athens-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108384","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\/4708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108384"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108406,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108384\/revisions\/108406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}