{"id":82627,"date":"2025-04-22T09:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T13:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=82627"},"modified":"2025-04-22T09:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T13:39:09","slug":"wta-madrid-day-predictions-stearns-vs-kimberly-birrell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/04\/22\/wta-madrid-day-predictions-stearns-vs-kimberly-birrell\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Madrid Day 1 Predictions Including Peyton Stearns vs Kimberly Birrell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WTA Mutua Madrid Open marks the first WTA 1000 event on clay this season, bringing together a strong field of contenders. Madrid\u2019s high altitude and faster clay add an extra layer of intrigue, often favoring aggressive players. This year, three-time champion Petra Kvitova returns to face American Katie Volynets in a standout first-round matc<\/a>h. We also break down other compelling openers, including Peyton Stearns vs Kimberly Birrell and Lulu Sun vs Varvara Gracheva.<\/p>\n

WTA Madrid Day 1 Predictions<\/h2>\n

Varvara Gracheva vs Lulu Sun<\/h4>\n

Head-to-Head:<\/strong> Gracheva 1-0 Sun<\/p>\n

Varvara Gracheva holds a 1-0 head-to-head lead over Lulu Sun, having beaten her earlier this year on hard courts in Auckland. While Gracheva has had a mixed 2025 season, she\u2019s shown more consistency on clay than Sun, picking up a win in Rouen before falling to Bouzas Maneiro. Sun, meanwhile, is just 3-10 on the year and hasn\u2019t found much rhythm, despite an early-season win over Caroline Garcia. This will be their first meeting on clay, which could level the playing field slightly. Still, Gracheva\u2019s greater comfort on the surface gives her the edge heading into this matchup.
\nPrediction: Gracheva in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Peyton Stearns vs Kimberly Birrell<\/h4>\n

Head-to-Head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n

Peyton Stearns and Kimberly Birrell will meet for the first time in Madrid, with both players looking to build momentum on clay. Stearns hasn\u2019t had the strongest start to the season, but her upset win over Ons Jabeur in Dubai showed her potential to rise to the occasion. Clay isn\u2019t her strongest surface, though, and she comes into this match with limited success on it in 2025. Birrell, on the other hand, has been more active on clay recently and pushed Elena Rybakina in Billie Jean King Cup action. Still, Stearns\u2019 higher ceiling and experience at WTA-level events could be the deciding factor. Expect a closely contested match with Birrell slightly favored to take the win.
\nPrediction: Birrell in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The WTA Mutua Madrid Open marks the first WTA 1000 event on clay this season, bringing together a strong field of contenders. Madrid\u2019s high altitude and faster clay add an extra layer of intrigue, often favoring aggressive players. This year, three-time champion Petra Kvitova returns to face American Katie Volynets in a standout first-round match. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4590,"featured_media":68066,"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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,69],"tags":[4109,18183,17649,17650,2867,5748,18047,18048,2373,2369,7666,15705,15727,15629,5796,2374,4935],"class_list":["post-82627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-predictions","tag-kimberly-birrell","tag-kimberly-birrell-predictions","tag-lulu-sun","tag-lulu-sun-predictions","tag-mutua-madrid-open","tag-mutua-madrid-open-predictions","tag-peyton-stearns","tag-peyton-stearns-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-varvara-gracheva","tag-varvara-gracheva-predictions","tag-wta-madrid-open","tag-wta-madrid-open-predictions","tag-wta-madrid-predictions","tag-wta-picks","tag-wta-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82627","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\/4590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82627"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82644,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82627\/revisions\/82644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}