{"id":13278,"date":"2019-04-07T16:23:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-07T20:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=13278"},"modified":"2019-04-07T16:23:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-07T20:23:00","slug":"wta-samsung-open-lugano-day-1-predictions-including-timea-bacsinszky-vs-tamara-korpatsch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/04\/07\/wta-samsung-open-lugano-day-1-predictions-including-timea-bacsinszky-vs-tamara-korpatsch\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Samsung Open Lugano Day 1 Predictions Including Timea Bacsinszky vs Tamara Korpatsch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The clay courters head to Switzerland in the build-up to Rome, Madrid, and <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/french-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roland Garros<\/a>. The hosts will be hoping that Belinda Bencic can continue her rising form and build upon her clay debut, where she made the quarterfinals in Charleston last week. She awaits a qualifier in the first round. Alternatively, they will be looking for a resurgence from the talented but injury-prone Timea Bacsinszky. Last year\u2019s winner Elise Mertens doesn\u2019t participate this time around, so there\u2019ll be no defending champion.<\/p>\n<p>There are some interesting match-ups, here\u2019s a selection of them:<\/p>\n<h2>Lugano Day 1 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h3>Svetlana Kuznetsova vs Ekaterina Alexandrova<\/h3>\n<p><strong>No history<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Veteran clay court mainstay Svetlana Kuznetsova makes her seasonal debut &#8211; there is no reason why she won\u2019t be a force on the surface again. This is an intriguing Russia vs Russia contest and 24-year-old Alexandrova is on the rise. She has lost her last two matches and an 8-7 record on clay last year suggests a liking for the surface, but Kuznetsova\u2019s clay experience should allow her to edge this.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Kuznetsova in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"9j9TB61wSV1xX5RL-mFz5A\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/835751894\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'9j9TB61wSV1xX5RL-mFz5A',sig:'XqXQtBdZoHVgKWpxRol9GNeQcMJDn_UXbOPhbkvk8SA=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'835751894',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Viktorija Golubic vs Arantxa Rus<\/h3>\n<p><strong>No history<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Home country player Viktorija Golubic has had a steady time of things, making it through qualifying at both Miami and Indian Wells. Dutch World #131 Arantxa Rus, without being disrespectful, is an above average ITF player, but she should not trouble Golubic in front a Swiss crowd.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Golubic in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Rr7PUSDFQRta_Wkft5uDkA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1133886465\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Rr7PUSDFQRta_Wkft5uDkA',sig:'AaAip37IzU7_Ira4byCIfN71SquR2qrgLX9LdYpQR74=',w:'402px',h:'594px',items:'1133886465',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Mona Barthel vs Sorana Cirstea<\/h3>\n<p>Head-to-head: Bathel 1-1 Cirstea<\/p>\n<p>Barthel\u2019s groundstrokes were in range in a good three-match winning run in Indian Wells. It took Venus Williams to stop her. Barthel has never met her Romanian opponent Sorana Cirstea on clay, but Barthel is arguably more comfortable on the surface and should take this.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Barthel in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"yXDxnq2OTDp23jvYFkul9Q\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1134783011\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'yXDxnq2OTDp23jvYFkul9Q',sig:'SD2NbYEwBN2oIK7p6-Dq08mAI5T3RMtbV2Ic3y-otBA=',w:'396px',h:'594px',items:'1134783011',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Timea Bacsinszky vs Tamara Korpatsch<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head:<\/strong> Korpatsch 1-0 Bacsinszky<\/p>\n<p>Former French Open semiinalist Timea Bacsinszky will be hoping that the return to her favorite surface in her home country will see her return to the level that saw her reach world #9 in 2016. Now, partly due to injury and a form dip, she finds herself ranked world #113. The clay season is an opportunity to start climbing the rankings. Germany\u2019s Tamara Korpatsch, whilst boasting a clay victory over Bacsinszky, comes into this match on a four-match losing streak. Bacsinszky\u2019s clay pedigree should help her address the current head-to-head deficit.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Bacsinszky in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"nPnLGdcTTxROJGW552RQAw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1051875348\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'nPnLGdcTTxROJGW552RQAw',sig:'aVkWkbuq6XBu16B9jyNZxDzinuXZU6XuLL5TSLRLYc4=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1051875348',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The clay courters head to Switzerland in the build-up to Rome, Madrid, and Roland Garros. The hosts will be hoping that Belinda Bencic can continue her rising form and build upon her clay debut, where she made the quarterfinals in Charleston last week. She awaits a qualifier in the first round. Alternatively, they will be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":13283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[69,4],"tags":[5300,4184,484,602,179,5296,395,288,5293,5294],"class_list":["post-13278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","category-wta","tag-arantxa-rus","tag-ekaterina-alexandrova","tag-mona-barthel","tag-sorana-cirstea","tag-svetlana-kuznetsova","tag-tamara-korpatsch","tag-timea-bacsinszky","tag-viktorija-golubic","tag-wta-samsung-open-lugano-2019","tag-wta-samsung-open-lugano-2019-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278","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\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}