{"id":22665,"date":"2020-01-06T09:22:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T14:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=22665"},"modified":"2020-01-06T10:28:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T15:28:39","slug":"wta-shenzhen-tuesday-predictions-sabalenka-pliskova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/01\/06\/wta-shenzhen-tuesday-predictions-sabalenka-pliskova\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Shenzhen Tuesday Predictions Including Aryna Sabalenka vs Kristyna Pliskova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tennis doesn\u2019t stop at the WTA Shenzhen Open. Across the first two days of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2020\/01\/05\/wta-shenzhen-monday-predictions-muguruza-wang\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">main draw matches<\/a>, all seven seeds in action found a way to advance to the round of 16. On Tuesday, top favorite Belinda Bencic will make her season debut. Is it time for an upset or not?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Shenzhen Tuesday Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4><strong>Belinda Bencic vs Anna Blinkova<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to Head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Blinkova\u2019s arrow is pointing up. She\u2019s enjoyed two fruitful seasons in a row, attaining 90 overall wins (WTA &amp; ITF) and only 55 losses. The Russian was a tough out in late 2019, snatching a set from Naomi Osaka at the US Open and from Sofia Kenin in Guangzhou. Nevertheless<span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">, because I\u2019m not considering Coco Gauff elite yet,<\/span> she lacked a marquee win that leads me to believe Bencic is in legit jeopardy.<\/p>\n<p>The Swiss completed a terrific campaign, lifting both the Dubai (Premier 5) and Moscow (Premier) titles, while also reaching the US Open semis. If healthy, Bencic is a contender at any event she enters.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Bencic in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"SwFyl5wpQdR9l1yvukgKKA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1185027821\" target=\"_blank\" 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:'SwFyl5wpQdR9l1yvukgKKA',sig:'vAkyGvBCC-c4rKehsXJMLI4alTAhcKs56fVuDeRHex4=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1185027821',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Xiyu Wang vs Elise Mertens<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to Head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Wang\u2019s 3-6 6-1 6-1 comeback against No. 74 \u00a0Sorana Cirstea certainly qualifies as one of her finest career wins. Ranking wise, it\u2019s her third best win. The 18-year-old lefty will face a tough test in Mertens. In 2019, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/wplayer-classic.cgi?p=EliseMertens&amp;f=A2019qqC2K1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Belgian won five out of six matches against left-handed opponents<\/a>, with her lone defeat coming against French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova, who is a class or two above No. 144 Wang at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being known as one of the most reliable players on tour, Mertens dropped three matches against sub-100 foes last year. If Lin Zhu, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and Kristie Ahn did it, why can\u2019t the rising Wang follow suit?<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Mertens in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"TPL7C-AqRjlVaQtwKjOS0Q\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1197623326\" target=\"_blank\" 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:'TPL7C-AqRjlVaQtwKjOS0Q',sig:'waSHuBB96M_y8Cc1B_RrIeo6Zs-OgNOpySfcLFR80us=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1197623326',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Shuai Zhang vs Kateryna Bondarenko<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to Head:<\/strong> Bondarenko 1-0 Zhang<\/p>\n<p>The Ukrainian, currently ranked No. 1168 after missing pretty much the whole 2019 season, obtained a good 6-4 6-1 victory over Misaki Doi in the round of 32. Bondarenko won a 73.2% of her first serve points, her highest rate on a WTA main draw match since October 2017 against Marga Linette, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/wplayer-classic.cgi?p=KaterynaBondarenko&amp;f=ACareerqq\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tennis Abstract<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of Linette, the Pole was Zhang\u2019s first victim at the Shenzhen Open. The world No. 40 completed a bizarre 2019, as almost half of her tour level wins (9 of 20) came at Slams.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not expecting a lopsided affair here, but Bondarenko needs it more to build his ranking back.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Bondarenko in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"srSxQbBHQJdcWS_ciTDf2g\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/951497350\" target=\"_blank\" 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:'srSxQbBHQJdcWS_ciTDf2g',sig:'QZcfhEzXKdsw0V-xqn1nCnbme6rRNORQneyv6GfM9Qw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'951497350',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Aryna Sabalenka vs Kristyna Pliskova<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to Head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Sabalenka began her title-defense campaign on a strong note, mauling Margarita Gasparyan 6-3 6-0. The second seed won 56.4% of her return points.<\/p>\n<p>It won\u2019t be easy to replicate such a strong returning performance against the big-serving Pliskova. The Czech <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtatennis.com\/tournament\/1063\/shenzhen\/2020\/scores\/LS030\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fired six aces and won 72.7% of her service points<\/a> versus Irina-Camelia Begu, whom she handily dismissed 6-3 6-3.<\/p>\n<p>Still, unless she shows clear signs of weakness, Sabalenka is the woman to beat in China.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Sabalenka in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo from Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tennis doesn\u2019t stop at the WTA Shenzhen Open. Across the first two days of main draw matches, all seven seeds in action found a way to advance to the round of 16. On Tuesday, top favorite Belinda Bencic will make her season debut. Is it time for an upset or not? WTA Shenzhen Tuesday Predictions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1663,"featured_media":11961,"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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69,4],"tags":[1763,1766,10111,266,10109,1412,1748,2432,10079,405,10107,2373,2369,10078,10110,4073,10108],"class_list":["post-22665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","category-wta","tag-anna-blinkova","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-aryna-sabalenka-vs-kristyna-pliskova-prediction","tag-belinda-bencic","tag-belinda-bencic-vs-anna-blinkova-prediction","tag-elise-mertens","tag-kateryna-bondarenko","tag-kristyna-pliskova","tag-shenzhen-open-predictions","tag-shuai-zhang","tag-shuai-zhang-vs-kateryna-bondarenko-prediction","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-shenzhen-2020","tag-wta-shenzhen-predictions","tag-xiyu-wang","tag-xiyu-wang-vs-elise-mertens-prediction"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22665","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=22665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}