{"id":16461,"date":"2019-06-25T17:24:10","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T21:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=16461"},"modified":"2019-06-25T19:18:23","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T23:18:23","slug":"wta-eastbourne-wednesday-predictions-simona-halep-vs-polona-hercog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/06\/25\/wta-eastbourne-wednesday-predictions-simona-halep-vs-polona-hercog\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Eastbourne Wednesday Predictions, Including Simona Halep vs Polona Hercog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the week progresses, the 2019 Nature Valley International in Eastbourne continues to deliver high-caliber tennis. Andy Murray\u2019s doubles cameo came to an end on Tuesday, so the women\u2019s draw is now unquestionably the main event in Eastbourne. Here are some Round of 16 matches to watch. (And I went four for four on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/06\/24\/wta-eastbourne-tuesday-predictions-sloane-stephens-jelena-ostapenko\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Tuesday&#8217;s Eastbourne picks<\/a>, down to the number of sets.)<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Eastbourne Wednesday Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4><strong>Elise Mertens vs Karolina Pliskova<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to Head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Interesting matchup here. Pliskova, the 2017 champion, suffered a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/06\/19\/kristyna-pliskova-earns-first-top-5-win-karolina-birmingham\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">shocking defeat to her twin sister Krystina<\/a> in Birmingham last week. Or not so shocking, since their head to head stands at five wins apiece. Anyway, the second seed owns one of the best serves on tour; i.e. a weapon of mass destruction on grass. Conversely, her 6&#8217;1&#8243; in frame makes it hard for her to handle the low, uneven bounces on the surface.<\/p>\n<p>Mertens, who aside from her Doha title run has had a lackluster campaign so far, needs to be sharp as a returner. Last week in Mallorca, she played near perfect tennis for a set against Sofia Kenin, taking the opener 6-1, but her precision waned thereafter. Besides, it will not be easy for the Belgian to adjust from Marketa Vondrousova\u2019s top spin forehands to Pliskova\u2019s flat strokes.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Pliskova in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"9gRtHgO3TlpwvXDOo95eVw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1156980995\" 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:'9gRtHgO3TlpwvXDOo95eVw',sig:'_wXKGvi4ywd2WDzBY70kaNlfT_gQKYq6gg5PabIRuXM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1156980995',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Angelique Kerber vs Rebecca Peterson<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to Head:<\/strong> Kerber 1-0 Peterson<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/07\/14\/angelique-kerber-defeats-serena-williams-to-win-first-wimbledon-title\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">reigning<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/wimbledon\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wimbledon<\/a> champion may not be enjoying her best season, but it would be foolish to rule out a return to dominance on grass, where she has owns a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/wplayer.cgi?p=AngeliqueKerber&amp;f=ACareerqqB2\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">robust track record<\/a> (69-26 in her career, per Tennis Abstract). In her debut against Samantha Stosur, the German won an outstanding 71% of her second serve return points. Peterson better make a high percentage of her first serves if she wants to make this a competitive match. It might not even matter, though, as the Swede is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/wplayer.cgi?p=RebeccaPeterson&amp;f=ACareerqqITop_20qq\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">winless in seven matches<\/a> against top 20 rivals, on any surface. Barring collapse, the quarterfinal ticket is on Kerber\u2019s racket.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Kerber in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Foh_2mOSSb5om6fLMML88A\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1157602278\" 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:'Foh_2mOSSb5om6fLMML88A',sig:'TtDitrPqXeTN7_4CKSw_83-bSQdWlpfOlc0ILiNWOio=',w:'594px',h:'418px',items:'1157602278',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Johanna Konta vs Ons Jabeur<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to Head:<\/strong> Konta 1-0 Jabeur<\/p>\n<p>The Tunisian\u2019s success on grass at the ITF level, with three trophies, has not translated yet to the main tour. Jabeur is such a crafty player with great hands at the net. Konta is the vastly superior player from the baseline and will shred Jabeur apart if she\u2019s able to dictate. Therefore, the 24-year-old needs to land punches via drop shots, or throw in short angled slices to drag the Brit to the net. Jabeur has completed two successive comebacks versus Evgeniya Rodina (1-6 7-6 7-5) and Mandy Minella (2-6 6-2 6-1) but fan favorite Konta is a different animal.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Konta in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"BYVzZ3t2RCReapGACko8qg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1151648546\" 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:'BYVzZ3t2RCReapGACko8qg',sig:'hnHyyd9X7USnNFZHvFz5iFuvUqbg6IzkrJ05hLskl7I=',w:'594px',h:'456px',items:'1151648546',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Simona Halep vs Polona Hercog<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to Head:<\/strong> Halep 1-1 Hercog<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s really bizarre these two have only squared off against each other twice, considering they grew up playing the same tournaments. For instance, they both participated in the <a href=\"http:\/\/old.tenniseurope.org\/PDF\/junior\/Individual%20Champs\/2005\/Draws\/U14\/GSM.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">European U14 Championship<\/a> in Ostrava back in 2005. First seed Hercog and third seed Halep were slated to meet in the semifinals, but the Romanian fell in the round of 16 to Marta Sirotkina. For the record, former World No. 37 Ksenia Pervak took home the title.<\/p>\n<p>Years later, Halep became the clear-cut top player of that age group, winning the U16 European Championship or the girls <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/french-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">French Open<\/a> among other titles. Even though Hercog was a fellow top 10 in the junior rankings, their paths never crossed until a $100K event in Bulgaria a decade ago, which the Slovenian took in three sets. We must fast forward ten years to find their most recent duel, at the Miami Open 2019. Halep barely snatched a 5-7 7-6 6-2 win in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Halep is good on grass, but far from great. She\u2019s 28-15 on the surface, but has only reached the Wimbledon semis once, back in 2014. For her part, Hercog possesses a big serve and can rip forehands at will, but on the backhand side she relies almost exclusively on the slice. Alison Riske successfully exploited that weakness last week in s\u2019Hertogenbosch. Halep should mimic the American\u2019s game plan: pressure the backhand over and over until she gets the chance to pounce on a short meatball.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Halep in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"mc6Q7fLET5xxJkaPJSAiBw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1151615576\" 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:'mc6Q7fLET5xxJkaPJSAiBw',sig:'G6iShb5Hqoe5iWHAdlhPyoBZSI-VhzY3j4yWUbqfHpo=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1151615576',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>As the week progresses, the 2019 Nature Valley International in Eastbourne continues to deliver high-caliber tennis. Andy Murray\u2019s doubles cameo came to an end on Tuesday, so the women\u2019s draw is now unquestionably the main event in Eastbourne. Here are some Round of 16 matches to watch. (And I went four for four on Tuesday&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1663,"featured_media":16464,"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":[6737,16,24,3204,1412,3226,60,147,1096,5150,3502,74,2373,2369,6715],"class_list":["post-16461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","category-wta","tag-2019-wta-eastbourne","tag-andy-murray","tag-angelique-kerber","tag-eastbourne","tag-elise-mertens","tag-grass","tag-johanna-konta","tag-karolina-pliskova","tag-ons-jabeur","tag-polona-hercog","tag-rebecca-peterson","tag-simona-halep","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-nature-valley-international"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16461","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\/1663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}