{"id":26617,"date":"2020-08-04T19:53:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T23:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=26617"},"modified":"2020-08-10T20:47:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T00:47:54","slug":"palermo-ladies-open-day-3-predictions-errani-kristyna-plikova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/08\/04\/palermo-ladies-open-day-3-predictions-errani-kristyna-plikova\/","title":{"rendered":"Palermo Ladies Open Day 3 Predictions \u2013 Including Sara Errani vs Kristyna Plikova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following a five-month hiatus, tour level tennis has returned. The Palermo Ladies Open kicked off its 31<sup>st<\/sup> edition on August 3. No sell-out crowds in Palermo \u2013 the coronavirus is limiting fans. It\u2019s remarkable to see such high profile players entered in this small clay court tournament \u2013 a tournament whose entry limited the field to exclusively European players.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday will see Round of 16 action with players hoping to earn a quarterfinal berth. Here are predictions for who will secure their spot.<\/p>\n<h2>Palermo Ladies Open (Internazionali Femminili di Palermo) Day 3 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4><strong>Ekaterina Alexandrova (8) vs Fiona Ferro<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head: <\/strong>First meeting<\/p>\n<p>Competing in her first tournament since Doha in February, Ekaterina Alexandrova was challenged in her opening set against Kristina Mladenovic. However, the 25-year-old lefty all but erased that deficit giving up just a single game in the next two sets. Next up for the Russian is Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro. I doubt the Belgium born 23-year-old has the tools or the tempo to challenge Alexandrova\u2019s power.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Alexandrova in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"DW1WbdIeSaRzlINO8nG9Iw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1200848449\" 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:'DW1WbdIeSaRzlINO8nG9Iw',sig:'FA1B0du81ePOL-fSVZ6nPWG7hUZe3lxBaD0jWjZrB8k=',w:'396px',h:'594px',items:'1200848449',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Jasmine Paolini vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head: <\/strong>First meeting<\/p>\n<p>With more than 60 ranking spots separating these two, it\u2019s doubtful Jasmine Paolini can win this one \u2013 even with the limited fans supporting her. Sure, a win over former Top 10 Daria Kasatkina is a confidence booster. But the three hour ordeal will surely take a toll.<\/p>\n<p>Sasnovich played through qualifiers for her main draw berth.\u00a0I think that\u2019s only served to sharpen her skill as evidenced by her first round win over #5 seed Elise Mertens. I don\u2019t expect a quick and commanding win. But, I do expect the Belarusian to see the quarterfinals.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Sasnovich in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"NcH3sMkhT8t6Fttg5HmlmA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1198224561\" 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:'NcH3sMkhT8t6Fttg5HmlmA',sig:'qXDU-Io_K-IAFkiTlCy62fI9psMFRGF0B9R5KXIRGZc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1198224561',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Elisabetta Cocciaretto vs Donna Vekic (6)<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head: <\/strong>First meeting<\/p>\n<p>With Elisabetta Cocciaretto\u2019s stellar clay court skill, it won\u2019t be the easy win Donna Vekic garnered in her opener. The Italian will be buoyed by her unexpected win over Polona Hercog. While Cocciaretto will have the crowd squarely in her corner, she has few weapons to truly challenge #6 seed Donna Vekic. After a dominant opener, 6-1, 6-2 against Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus, Vekic should be poised for a deep run.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction:\u00a0Vekic in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"RESQ051MSVddf3cBWfzUCg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1263657119\" 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:'RESQ051MSVddf3cBWfzUCg',sig:'bPnKPAsiSNbEb3Cq9PpgoL1tRwBisajFlbVhjlCT-uQ=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'1263657119',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Sara Errani vs Kristyna Pliskova<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head: <\/strong>First meeting<\/p>\n<p>What looks like an easy day on the court for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2019\/06\/19\/kristyna-pliskova-earns-first-top-5-win-karolina-birmingham\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kristyna Pliskova<\/a> may turn out to be anything but that. The Czech\u2019s spinning lefty serve and powerful groundstrokes would seem to be too much for the petite Italian Errani. And when you look at perhaps the most attackable serve in the game, you may want to dismiss Errani as a challenger. Yet, Sara Errani is one of the winningest clay courters on the WTA tour. Keeping the ball in play is a specialty \u2013 one in which she\u2019ll wield against Pliskova\u2019s movement deficits. Don\u2019t expect a blowout here. Errani has the tactics to keep Pliskova off balance and out of sort. At the end of the day, though, Pliskova should be headed the quarterfinals. But, we do get to watch what should be a thrilling and contentious match between two veterans of the courts.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Pliskova in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo from Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following a five-month hiatus, tour level tennis has returned. The Palermo Ladies Open kicked off its 31st edition on August 3. No sell-out crowds in Palermo \u2013 the coronavirus is limiting fans. It\u2019s remarkable to see such high profile players entered in this small clay court tournament \u2013 a tournament whose entry limited the field [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":22778,"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":[69,11519,4],"tags":[11592,1248,4184,11629,5874,11628,5332,5319,11627,2432,11624,11625,475,11626,4935],"class_list":["post-26617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","category-tennis","category-wta","tag-2020-wta-palermo-ladies-open","tag-donna-vekic","tag-ekaterina-alexandrova","tag-ekaterina-alexandrova-vs-fiona-ferro-prediction","tag-elisabetta-cocciaretto","tag-elisabetta-cocciaretto-vs-donna-vekic-prediction","tag-fiona-ferro","tag-jasmine-paolini","tag-jasmine-paolini-vs-aliaksandra-sasnovich-prediction","tag-kristyna-pliskova","tag-palermo-ladies-open-day-3-predictions","tag-palermo-open-predictions","tag-sara-errani","tag-sara-errani-vs-kristyna-pliskova-prediction","tag-wta-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26617","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=26617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}