{"id":80770,"date":"2025-03-05T18:30:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T23:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=80770"},"modified":"2025-03-05T17:57:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T22:57:39","slug":"wta-indian-wells-day-2-predictions-kessler-blinkova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/03\/05\/wta-indian-wells-day-2-predictions-kessler-blinkova\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Indian Wells Day 2 Predictions Including McCartney Kessler vs Anna Blinkova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The remaining WTA Indian Wells matches will be completed on Day 2. Last week&#8217;s ATX Open runner-up McCartney Kessler begins her campaign with a tricky matchup against Anna Blinkova. As always, we at LWOT predict all the action. But which players do you think will win?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Indian Wells Day 2 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Viktorija Golubic vs Kimberly Birrell<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: Golubic 1-0 Birrell<\/p>\n<p>Birrell was the No. 1 seed in qualifying and has been performing solidly since the start of the season. The experienced Golubic is past her prime, but there have still been impressive flashes from the Swiss this year. This has the potential to be a tight battle, but Birrell will probably be confident of victory. The Australian&#8217;s accurate groundstrokes should allow her to target Golubic&#8217;s one-handed backhand.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Birrell in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Sonay Kartal vs Varvara Lepchenko<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\n<p>Lepchenko should have a lot of confidence heading into this match after a superb win against Taylor Townsend in qualifying. However, the matchup against Kartal will be entirely different. While Townsend&#8217;s game is based on big serving and variety, Kartal focuses much more on frustrating her opponents with gritty defense. Adjusting to that style might not be easy, but I still rate Lepchenko as a slight favorite.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Lepchenko in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a  id=\"1icoIWTsTv5tGG4fuheHTg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2173155388\" 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:'1icoIWTsTv5tGG4fuheHTg',sig:'ZdjhAInAVUt8ccDWFI_1bJZNR2bedKQ_nQbMWH3Ceao=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2173155388',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Iva Jovic vs Julia Grabher<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\n<p>This is a decent draw for both women, but especially for 17-year-old Jovic. Grabher has struggled for form since returning from a severe injury last year and is on a five-match losing streak. Jovic, who created headlines after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/08\/28\/american-teen-sensation-iva-jovic-bows-out-us-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">reaching the US Open second round<\/a> last year, remains a raw talent. Nonetheless, the young star has a great chance of getting another main draw victory at a significant tournament in this matchup.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Jovic in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>McCartney Kessler vs Anna Blinkova<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\n<p>Kessler was excellent during her run to a third WTA final in six months in Austin last week. She cannot afford any complacency here, though. Blinkova has won in the opening round at all of her tournaments this year. It is tough not to back Kessler because of her form and how well she usually plays in home conditions, but it could be a tighter battle than some expect.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Kessler in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The remaining WTA Indian Wells matches will be completed on Day 2. Last week&#8217;s ATX Open runner-up McCartney Kessler begins her campaign with a tricky matchup against Anna Blinkova. As always, we at LWOT predict all the action. But which players do you think will win? WTA Indian Wells Day 2 Predictions Viktorija Golubic vs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4708,"featured_media":74537,"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":[1763,15867,2754,42396,42397,9167,16285,4109,18183,41787,41786,17771,17772,2373,2369,1029,15977,42497,42498,4936],"class_list":["post-80770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-anna-blinkova","tag-anna-blinkova-predictions","tag-bnp-paribas-open-predictions","tag-iva-jovic","tag-iva-jovic-predictions","tag-julia-grabher","tag-julia-grabher-predictions","tag-kimberly-birrell","tag-kimberly-birrell-predictions","tag-mccartney-kessler","tag-mccartney-kessler-predictions","tag-sonay-kartal","tag-sonay-kartal-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-varvara-lepchenko","tag-varvara-lepchenko-predictions","tag-vikorija-golubic","tag-vikorija-golubic-predictions","tag-wta-indian-wells-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80770","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\/4708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80770"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80777,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80770\/revisions\/80777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}