Monday and Tuesday were routine days for the seeds in Paris, but Wednesday saw plenty of upsets as Simona Halep, Roberta Vinci and Carla Suarez Navarro all lost.  In Pattaya City, Sorana Cirstea appears to have woken from her slumber as she defeated my tip for the final, Alison Riske in straight sets.  Pattaya has a pretty lacklustre line-up for Thursday and the best matches are definitely in Paris.

1. Alize Cornet v Petra Kvitova (WTA Paris, R2)

Alize Cornet

Thursday’s late night match in Paris is the pick of the bunch as the number two seed, Petra Kvitova will take on Alize Cornet.  This will be Petra’s first appearance since a shock first round exit to Luksika Kumkhum at the Australian Open.  The loss of Simona Halep has opened up the bottom half and improves her chances of staying in until the weekend if she can find her feet quickly.  Cornet was at her dramatic best in a first round win over Magdalena Rybarikova, 6-3 5-7 6-2.  She had a meltdown on one of the changeovers with her coach, but as she often does, toughed out the win.  Cornet has become one of the grittiest competitors on tour and at number 25 in the world rankings, she is a tough player to beat.

In 2008, Cornet was on the cusps of the top ten, finishing the year at number 16 having reached the final of Rome.  However a loss at the 2009 Australian Open where she had match points to beat Dinara Safina, seemed to mentally destroy her as she completely went off the tennis radar making just one semi-final in 2009.  It wasn’t until the clay court season in 2012 when she started to post consistent results again and her return to form has been welcome because no matter what you say about Cornet, she’s an entertaining player to watch and always gives it her all, both physically and mentally.  Kvitova and Cornet last played at the Hopman Cup where Kvitova prevailed in an engaging three setter, 7-5 in the third set.  Cornet has the ability to get under Kvitova’s skin and with the backing of a home crowd, she could make this a very sticky match indeed for Petra.

Prediction: Kvitova to beat Cornet in 3 sets

2. Kristina Mladenovic v Andrea Petkovic (WTA Paris, R2)

Kristina Mladenovic

I was really surprised to see so many people going for Simona Halep to win the Paris tournament.  Halep was knocked out on Wednesday by Kristina Mladenovic, 7-6(1) 6-4, which granted, I did not see coming.  The indoor event in Paris was Mladenovic’s best result of the 2013 campaign where she beat Petra Kvitova on her way to making the semi-finals.  Mladenovic has kind of stuttered since that tournament last year.  She put in some fine performances at the Slams against Sam Stosur at Roland Garros and Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon, although was unable to win a set in either.  She has struggled beating players that on paper, you thought she could win.  In my opinion she is a future top 30 player, perhaps top 20 at best.  Mladenovic seems like a genuinely nice person though so I hope she can go higher than my estimation!

This will be a match between two of the most classy WTA players as Mladenovic goes up against Andrea Petkovic.  Petkovic had an equally rewarding first round win as she overturned a defeat at last year’s US Open to beat Bojana Jovanovski, 6-2 6-3.  The pair have never played before and I think it has all the makings to be a really good match.  Mladenovic has home support and proved last year that she thrives in this environment; however I fancy Petko to prevail and reach the quarters.

Prediction: Petkovic to beat Mladenovic in 3 sets

WTA Paris, 2nd Round Predictions

Elina Svitolina to beat Galina Voskoboeva in 3 sets

Kirsten Flipkens to beat Yvonne Meusburger in 2 tight sets

Sara Errani to beat Karin Knapp in 3 sets

WTA Pattaya City, 2nd Round Predictions

Peng Shuai to beat Alexandra Dulgheru in 2 sets

Kimiko Date-Krumm to beat Tadeja Majeric in 2 tight sets

Elena Vesnina to beat Nicha Lertpitaksinchai in 2 sets