{"id":55220,"date":"2023-02-26T23:44:46","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T04:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=55220"},"modified":"2023-02-26T23:44:46","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T04:44:46","slug":"wta-austin-day-1-predictions-kovinic-watson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/02\/26\/wta-austin-day-1-predictions-kovinic-watson\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Austin Day 1 Predictions Including Danka Kovinic vs Heather Watson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The inaugural WTA ATX Open in Austin, Texas, will be the first WTA Tour-level tournament to be played on U.S. soil this year. And there will be a slew of entertaining matchups throughout the week. Day 1 is headlined by the presence of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/02\/06\/alycia-parks-wta-title-streak\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">rising star Alycia Parks<\/a>, who will play Swedish wild card Mirjam Bjorklund. Who do you think will come out on top?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Austin Day 1 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Katie Volynets vs Alison Riske-Amritraj<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Katie Volynets is on the rise. Since suffering a shock defeat to Venus Williams in Auckland at the start of the year, the 21-year-old has done fairly well. She made the third round of a Slam for the first time and scored her first top-10 scalp by beating Veronika Kudermeotva <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/australian-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">in Melbourne<\/a>. It would be harsh to go as far as saying this might be the start of a decline, but Riske-Amritraj is having a poor set of results. Her confirdence has taken a hit and she has been on the wrong end of a handful of tight matches this year. It is now one win in nine for the 32-year-old dating back to the end of 2022. Volynets looks primed to deny her compatriot here.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Volynets in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"bHSAFTnIQVp43wcUmuzbrQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1468078456\" 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:'bHSAFTnIQVp43wcUmuzbrQ',sig:'2uBuY1u-laBUFKq-qJVDVTT7N-rQoDNDoSNOae3P8R0=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1468078456',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Alycia Parks vs Mirjam Bjorklund<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Parks&#8217; week in Merida did not go as planned, but this looks like a nice tournament to bounce back from. Bjorklund has won an ITF tournament staged in Austin before, so she has the feel-good factor when she returns to the city. The young American, however, has a big game to power through here, even though her composure is still a work in progress.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Parks in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"P5JcggugSxRQiCmByxkzGw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1468966366\" 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:'P5JcggugSxRQiCmByxkzGw',sig:'P2DrrQUlK0_rLoGXw2oz8ipoXhKG-Mr_gfFSNcFKSY4=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1468966366',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Anna Blinkova vs Ann Li<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Ann Li has yet to win a main draw match this year. In fact, you have to go back to September the last time she won at this level. So it&#8217;s been a while. The American had a strong qualifying campaign in Austin which should serve her nicely for a big-hitting contest against Blinkova. Blinkova started the year with a semifinal run in Hobart, scoring wins over Yulia Putintseva and Marie Bouzkova although she is currently on a four-match losing streak. The Russian is a clean hitter and Li might lack the necessary power to outmatch her.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Blinkova in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Hx4k8h6vSnRlR-WzgjiWTQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1456111838\" 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:'Hx4k8h6vSnRlR-WzgjiWTQ',sig:'fHj1-4wXv0HWfT_5ZDP1vx7Hp8zLaToMRSTaOzVb6bc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1456111838',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Danka Kovinic vs Heather Watson<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head:<\/strong> Watson 1-0 Kovinic<\/p>\n<p>Watson has made a positive start to her 2023 season. A quarterfinal run in Hua Hin was followed by a runner-up finish at the W25 ITF in Glasgow. Kovinic had an equally great start but succumbed to an embarrassing loss in the qualifying round in Dubai, falling to 831st-ranked Stefania Bojica. The Montenegrin could take a while to get going here with Watson already at an advantage playing a couple of qualifying matches in Austin.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Watson in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The inaugural WTA ATX Open in Austin, Texas, will be the first WTA Tour-level tournament to be played on U.S. soil this year. And there will be a slew of entertaining matchups throughout the week. Day 1 is headlined by the presence of rising star Alycia Parks, who will play Swedish wild card Mirjam Bjorklund. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2341,"featured_media":55224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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],"tags":[18030,18031,15376,16273,10120,15969,1763,15867,8537,15421,477,15956,8293,16170,17508,17519,2373,2369,18660],"class_list":["post-55220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alison-riske-amritraj","tag-alison-riske-amritraj-predictions","tag-alycia-parks","tag-alycia-parks-predictions","tag-ann-li","tag-ann-li-predictions","tag-anna-blinkova","tag-anna-blinkova-predictions","tag-danka-kovinic","tag-danka-kovinic-predictions","tag-heather-watson","tag-heather-watson-predictions","tag-katie-volynets","tag-katie-volynets-predictions","tag-mirjam-bjorklund","tag-mirjam-bjorklund-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-austin-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55220","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\/2341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}