{"id":80328,"date":"2025-02-24T23:10:19","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T04:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=80328"},"modified":"2025-02-24T23:10:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T04:10:19","slug":"wta-austin-day-2-predictions-jessica-pegula-vs-arantxa-rus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/02\/24\/wta-austin-day-2-predictions-jessica-pegula-vs-arantxa-rus\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Austin Day 2 Predictions Including Jessica Pegula vs Arantxa Rus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s a jam-packed day 2 at the ATX Open in Austin, Texas with 11 first-round matches. All the top seeds will be in action and this article features world No.4 and #1 seed, Jessica Pegula who will take on Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. As always, we at LWOT will offer our predictions for every match on the slate. But who will advance to the next round?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Austin Day 2 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Kaja Juvan vs Ena Shibahara<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: first meeting<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1933717047\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1933717047?et=9sJ1TNHTREVxjVo4_x6kag&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=_hrfERYxhTRQ_QrqahqHpoBREt8PDQeDeM3T3QizZ5E=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kaja Juvan won two qualifying matches in a day and will play her first tour-level match since the 2024 Australian Open. It&#8217;s nice to have Juvan back, but this is only her second professional event since her comeback, and she&#8217;ll need some time to regain her best form. However, she has a decent first-round match on paper against Ena Shibahara, who will also play her first main draw match of the season and is quite inexperienced at this level. I like Juvan&#8217;s chances in this one if she can play at a decent level.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Juvan in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Cristina Bucsa vs Bernarda Pera<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Bucsa 0-1 Pera<\/p>\n<p>Cristina Bucsa was dominant in her qualifying matches, losing just seven games in two encounters. Bucsa has had a couple of big wins this season but has not capitalized on them to win more matches. If she plays her best tennis, this could be a big week. Bernarda Pera is on a four-match losing streak since reaching the quarterfinals in Auckland. Pera&#8217;s second-serve struggles give me little faith that she will win a close match like this.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Bucsa in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Anna Bondar vs Tatjana Maria<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Bondar 1-2 Maria<\/p>\n<p>Anna Bondar made a decent start to the season but has been winless since the first tournament. She will be looking to snap her three-match losing streak and even the head-to-head against Tatjana Maria, who is coming off a bad loss in Cancun. Neither player plays their best tennis on hard courts, hence the winner will be the one who can play close to their best on the day. I am going with the Hungarian.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Bondar in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Jessica Pegula vs Arantxa Rus<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Pegula 0-1 Rus<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2168667988\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 69.69697% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2168667988?et=xz8FsSiLSKtF1EZIMoDazg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=on2b_9knHgmYo14UCdZiu6WTqu-NBorOCrmXSysSC4A=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"414\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Jessica Pegula has not had the results she had hoped for in the last few events. Her expectations are so high that she will be disappointed if she does not advance to the final stages of a tournament. This is her first appearance at the ATX Open and she is the overwhelming favourite to lift the trophy this week. That can put some extra pressure and a solid opening match should help her ease into the event. Arantxa Rus has beaten Pegula before, but both players are on a different level since their last meeting. Rus is on a five-match losing streak in all competitions and I can&#8217;t see her breaking the streak here.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Pegula in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-<em>USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s a jam-packed day 2 at the ATX Open in Austin, Texas with 11 first-round matches. All the top seeds will be in action and this article features world No.4 and #1 seed, Jessica Pegula who will take on Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. As always, we at LWOT will offer our predictions for every [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5086,"featured_media":63037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[13445,16358,5300,15703,42826,42834,2480,15536,15195,15843,17164,17165,3535,15652,6217,15957,2255,17463,2373,2369,18671,18660,2374,4935],"class_list":["post-80328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-anna-bondar","tag-anna-bondar-predictions","tag-arantxa-rus","tag-arantxa-rus-predictions","tag-atx-open","tag-atx-open-predictions","tag-bernarda-pera","tag-bernarda-pera-predictions","tag-cristina-bucsa","tag-cristina-bucsa-predictions","tag-ena-shibahara","tag-ena-shibahara-predictions","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-jessica-pegula-predictions","tag-kaja-juvan","tag-kaja-juvan-predictions","tag-tatjana-maria","tag-tatjana-maria-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-austin","tag-wta-austin-predictions","tag-wta-picks","tag-wta-predictions"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80328","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\/5086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80328"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80347,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80328\/revisions\/80347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}