Wednesday at the National Bank Open will be an exciting day of action for fans to witness, with many players on the WTA Tour beginning their campaigns for a prestigious WTA 1000 trophy in Toronto. LWOT predicts some of the matches on the schedule, with this set of matches featuring recent Citi Open champion Paula Badosa.<\/p>\n
Head-to-head: <\/strong>1-1\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This early afternoon battle is a rematch from just last week in Washington D.C. for the Citi Open. Dolehide won that match 7-6 (5) 6-1 in a quarterfinal, and she\u2019s arguably in better form compared to her opponent. Dolehide tends to play well in fast conditions like Toronto, while Anisimova has played fewer matches throughout the season. I like Anisimova\u2019s changes to make this match a lot closer–she\u2019ll likely employ different strategies to break down Dolehide\u2019s game–but Dolehide should have enough to win this in a close match.<\/span> [tgdcta items=”1″ id=”170466″]<\/p>\n Head-to-head:\u00a0<\/strong>First meeting\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This should be an interesting encounter, mainly because of the strange circumstances surrounding it. Shnaider benefited from a slew of tournament withdrawals<\/a> and ranked 24th in the world, she\u2019s now a Top 16 seed with a solid draw to go deep in the event. Shnaider just recently came off a silver medal at the Olympics last week. Dart injured herself in a qualifying match against Louisa Chirico and was taken off the court via wheelchair<\/a> \u2014 she was later granted a lucky loser spot and shook off many injury concerns by playing doubles on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see whether Dart holds up physically, but Shnaider has more weapons compared to the Brit. Shanider should win this straightforwardly.<\/span>
\nPrediction: Dolehide in 3<\/em><\/p>\nDiana Shnaider vs Harriet Dart<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nPrediction: Shnaider in 2<\/em><\/p>\n