The action continues at the Miami Open at Hard Rock Stadium with Day 2 of the WTA singles first round delivering another exciting slate of matches. From a wild card fresh off her breakthrough WTA final to an 18-year-old rising star in red-hot form, these early-round clashes promise plenty of intrigue and potential upsets. As always, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match on the schedule. But who will advance?<\/p>\n
Head-to-Head:<\/strong> First meeting<\/span><\/p>\n Stearns has been inconsistent this season, with early exits in some events, but she displayed real quality in Austin, going deep with her heavy topspin and physical endurance. Golubic has managed just 1-4 on hard courts in 2026, despite a WTA 125 final on indoor hard earlier this year. Her outdoor hard results remain unconvincing. On Miami\u2019s faster courts, Stearns\u2019 superior ball-striking and groundstroke power should prove decisive. She has the edge in this matchup.<\/span> Head-to-Head:<\/strong> First meeting<\/span><\/p>\n Tagger has been exceptional in 2026, compiling a 13-3 record that includes an ITF title and a notable Indian Wells run (upsetting Gracheva before falling to Sakkari). The 18-year-old Austrian\u2019s one-handed backhand and shot-making variety make her a threat at tour level despite her youth. Seidel holds a 6-9 record this year and has been inconsistent, though she qualified here and notched wins over Potapova, Rakhimova, and Bucsa in Dubai. Tagger\u2019s current confidence and form make her the favorite, though Seidel could steal a set.<\/span> Head-to-Head:<\/strong> First meeting<\/span><\/p>\n Tjen\u2019s recent Indian Wells loss–squandering a 3-0 lead in the deciding set tiebreak–highlights her tendency to drop tight matches. She\u2019s yet to reach a quarterfinal this season. Putintseva, by contrast, reached the Australian Open<\/a> Round of 16 for the first time and has shown overall improvement. The Kazakh veteran excels in gritty, unpredictable battles, and this matchup fits that profile perfectly. Despite Tjen\u2019s ranking edge<\/a>, Putintseva\u2019s experience in big moments should prevail.<\/span> Head-to-Head:<\/strong> Townsend leads 1-0<\/span><\/p>\n Townsend enters with strong momentum after reaching her first WTA singles final in Austin, upsetting higher-ranked players along the way. Her aggressive, net-rushing style disrupts opponents\u2019 rhythm, and she\u2019s shown composure in tight situations. Sun, however, has struggled on hard courts in 2026 (3-6 record) and hasn\u2019t recaptured her 2024 breakthrough form. She qualified here but has been plagued by double faults all season. Townsend\u2019s ability to take time away at the net and vary pace plays directly into Sun\u2019s current weaknesses. With superior form and the head-to-head edge, Townsend should advance.<\/span> Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The action continues at the Miami Open at Hard Rock Stadium with Day 2 of the WTA singles first round delivering another exciting slate of matches. From a wild card fresh off her breakthrough WTA final to an 18-year-old rising star in red-hot form, these early-round clashes promise plenty of intrigue and potential upsets. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4590,"featured_media":59998,"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":[69],"tags":[19039,19040,43259,43260,43404,43405,17649,17650,5106,18047,18048,58,17720,2373,2369,288,15694,5078,8753,19041],"class_list":["post-99694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-ella-seidel","tag-ella-seidel-predictions","tag-janice-tjen","tag-janice-tjen-predictions","tag-lilli-tagger","tag-lilli-tagger-predictions","tag-lulu-sun","tag-lulu-sun-predictions","tag-miami-open-predictions","tag-peyton-stearns","tag-peyton-stearns-predictions","tag-taylor-townsend","tag-taylor-townsend-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-viktorija-golubic","tag-viktorija-golubic-predictions","tag-wta-miami-predictions","tag-yulia-putinsteva","tag-yulia-putinsteva-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99694","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=99694"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99718,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99694\/revisions\/99718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPrediction: Stearns in 2<\/span><\/p>\nLilli Tagger vs Ella Seidel<\/span><\/h4>\n
\nPrediction: Tagger in 3<\/span><\/p>\nJanice Tjen vs Yulia Putintseva<\/span><\/h4>\n
\nPrediction: Putintseva in 3<\/span><\/p>\nTaylor Townsend vs Lulu Sun<\/span><\/h4>\n
\nPrediction: Townsend in 3<\/span><\/p>\n