{"id":20679,"date":"2019-10-06T15:26:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T19:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=20679"},"modified":"2019-10-06T15:26:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-06T19:26:08","slug":"tianjin-open-day-1-predictions-garcia-potapova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/10\/06\/tianjin-open-day-1-predictions-garcia-potapova\/","title":{"rendered":"Tianjin Open Day 1 Predictions \u2013 Including Caroline Garcia vs Anastasia Potapova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The quote &#8220;the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry&#8221; summarizes sports journalism all to well. Originally scheduled to cover the now postponed Hong Kong Open gave me the honor to cover the Tianjin Open. I recognize I may well be the mouse &#8211; \u9f20<span id=\"ch_mu_eye-4\" class=\"cip\" lang=\"zh-Hans\">\u76ee<\/span><span id=\"ch_cun_a_unit_of_length-5\" class=\"cip\" lang=\"zh-Hans\">\u5bf8<\/span><span id=\"ch_guang_light-6\" class=\"cip\" lang=\"zh-Hans\">\u5149, or &#8220;A mouse&#8217;s vision is only one inch long,&#8221; a familiar Mandarin saying. While I&#8217;m thrilled to predict for Tianjin, my heart goes out to everyone effected by the unrest in Hong Kong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Tianjin Open kicks off first round play on Monday (Sunday night in the US). The 2018 defending champion Caroline Garcia begins her campaign against Anastasia Potapova. Here\u2019s a look at four match-ups and our predictions for who\u2019ll secure their spot in the second round.<\/p>\n<h2>Tianjin Open Day 1 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4><strong>Wang Yafan vs Lauren Davis<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head: <\/strong>Wang 1-0 Davis<\/p>\n<p>Lauren Davis\u2019 retirement at Wuhan sent China\u2019s Wang Yafan on to a second round bout with Sloane Stephens. Wang eventually lost to Stephen after pushing the seeded Stephens to a decider. That\u2019s pretty much the story of Wang\u2019s 2019. Battling to win, gaining momentum, only to be denied in the next round. In fact, after Wang\u2019s first title win in Acapulco in February, she lost in the opening round in Indian Wells. Miami saw Wang reach the Round of 16. Then, the Chinese lost in the first round of Rabat, Madrid, Rome, Strasbourg, <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/french-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roland Garros<\/a> and \u2018s-Hertogenbosch. Tianjin is a great opportunity for the inconsistent Wang to gain her equilibrium.<\/p>\n<p>Lauren Davis will be looking for a deep run at this WTA International level tournament. The petite American has had mixed results, achieving the greatest success on the ITF circuit. Davis\u2019 speed and fight have seen her push to most capable opponents to a third set. Yet, it seems that\u2019s where Davis tends to lose. I see this match going the distance, but eventually Wang will edge it out in the third set.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Wang in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"JVYaALkQQuJCuGl1OVEyWA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1177830641\" 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:'JVYaALkQQuJCuGl1OVEyWA',sig:'tq5syFStiShpMWKCG8URrybqFa9xq7fZ80bydgDfpGE=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1177830641',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Venus Williams vs Rebecca Peterson<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head: <\/strong>First meeting<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s nothing short of remarkable how Venus Williams has defied Father Time. Few 39-year-old athletes can perform at the level which Venus does. Sure, the level which propelled her to World #1, to win seven Grand Slams is long gone. But, the elder Williams sister has adjusted her game to allow her to remain competitive as evidenced by her quarterfinal runs in Cincinnati, Birmingham, Indian Wells, and Auckland. Yet, that\u2019s the deepest run Williams has reached in 2019. There were no semifinal bouts, no title challenges. However, it was the game\u2019s elite who usually bounced Venus. I don\u2019t think Rebecca Peterson will have enough weapons to be the player to exit Venus in Tianjin.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Williams in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"bNFCdGV-Q-pTMWSdmFEaGg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1171980976\" 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:'bNFCdGV-Q-pTMWSdmFEaGg',sig:'VbGS0pOhph051kzD3wipy9ZekH2aNDWha6OSKtet7bc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1171980976',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Astra Sharma vs Yulia Putintseva<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head: <\/strong>First meeting<\/p>\n<p>Yulia Putintseva has some interesting stats. According to WTA stats, the Kazakh holds the number three spot for most tiebreaks won. Goes to show the mental toughness which the World #37 brings to the court. In fact, Putintseva battled through this year\u2019s third longest match (3h 22m) to bring her Nurnberg win against Anna-Lena Friedsam in the quarterfinals. There\u2019s no doubt Putintseva is looking for a deep run in Tianjin and will view Astra Sharma as her first obstacle. And, there\u2019s nothing in the Sharma game which should prove insurmountable for Putintseva\u2019s first round win.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Putintseva in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"YE0bbe04Rx1BZslwzLOrGA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1170321243\" 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:'YE0bbe04Rx1BZslwzLOrGA',sig:'WDE4jZuQX7uYecTdWxeWv_j7xusVqSgYFLLfyZvLCIQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1170321243',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Caroline Garcia vs Anastasia Potapova<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head: <\/strong>First meeting<\/p>\n<p>The Asian swing hasn\u2019t been favorable for Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia. A two win, three loss record in September doesn\u2019t bode well for the Tianjin defending champion. It\u2019s been a dismal 2019 for Garcia. However, the World #31 lifted the trophy in Nottingham and reached the final in Strasbourg. It\u2019s difficult to pinpoint the lack of success for a player who wins 73% of her service games and converts 43.5% of her break point opportunities. Just a year ago, Garcia held the World #4 spot. It\u2019s been a disappointing hard court season for Garcia, with a 7-14 win-loss record on this surface.<\/p>\n<p>Anastasia Potapova will need to knock out the defending champion if she hopes to move on in Tianjin. While the Russian teen has a much better hard court record than does Garcia (12-12), the lack of experience may prove her downfall. While Potapova can come out on top in lengthy rallies, Garcia has the ability to end the point on her terms. I see the defending champ moving on and continuing her title defense.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Garcia in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo from Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The quote &#8220;the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry&#8221; summarizes sports journalism all to well. Originally scheduled to cover the now postponed Hong Kong Open gave me the honor to cover the Tianjin Open. I recognize I may well be the mouse &#8211; \u9f20\u76ee\u5bf8\u5149, or &#8220;A mouse&#8217;s vision is only one inch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":17719,"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":[4,69],"tags":[1526,5376,9178,406,9179,490,3502,9180,9181,9183,70,9177,4912,9176,9182,462],"class_list":["post-20679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wta","category-predictions","tag-anastasia-potapova","tag-astra-sharma","tag-astra-sharma-vs-yulia-putintseva-prediction","tag-caroline-garcia","tag-caroline-garcia-vs-anastasia-potapova-prediction","tag-lauren-davis","tag-rebecca-peterson","tag-tianjin-open","tag-tianjin-open-2019","tag-tianjin-open-predictions","tag-venus-williams","tag-venus-williams-vs-rebecca-peterson-prediction","tag-wang-yafan","tag-wang-yafan-vs-lauren-davis-prediction","tag-wta-tianjin-open","tag-yulia-putintseva"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20679","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\/1838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}