Second round action continues in Birmingham and Queens on Wednesday.  On Tuesday, Ana Ivanovic and Daniela Hantuchova overcame dangerous opponents to reach the third round of the Aegon Classic.  Ivanovic recovered from a 0-2 first set deficit to beat Mona Barthel, 6-4 6-1, meanwhile Hantuchova played a fabulous match to beat Belinda Bencic, 6-1 6-4.  You can read my recap of that match HERE.  At Queens, both Brits in action fell in straight sets.  Last year’s finalist and my predicted champion, Marin Cilic fell in straight sets to Marinko Matosevic.  In the final match of the day, the world number 167 James Duckworth gave a great account of himself as he took a set off Tomas Berdych showing great variety before eventually falling in three sets, 7-6(3) 5-7 6-4.

Polls: In yesterday’s polls, 67% correctly went for Ivanovic to beat Barthel, 52% correctly went for Hantuchova to beat Bencic and 80% correctly went for Dimitrov to beat Ward.

TFF Dream Team: I forgot to announce the final standings for the TFF Dream Team game, which I advertised for Roland Garros.  BK was the overwhelming winner, who finished 5th overall out of everyone in the whole game.  Wild Briar Village was 2nd, Brulati was 3rd and I came 4th!  Thanks to those who entered.  I’ll advertise when the game becomes active for Wimbledon.

1. Sloane Stephens v Francesca Schiavone (WTA Birmingham, R2)

Francesca Schiavone

One of Monday’s most impressive performances at the Aegon Classic came from Francesca Schiavone.  The former Roland Garros champion had won just five main draw matches this year, but she showed some good form to defeat Zheng Jie in the first round, 6-3 6-4.  This was an excellent win for Francesca because Zheng’s flat groundstrokes can be lethal on grass.  Zheng reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 2008, the semi-finals of Birmingham in 2012 and had that tremendous match with Serena at Wimbledon in the same year, which she lost 6-7(5) 6-2 9-7.

Generally clay is regarded as Schiavone’s best surface and she admitted in a post-match interview that grass is “at the start, tough”.  However her results have been very respectable on this surface in the past couple of years; she reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2009 and the fourth round back in 2012 when she pushed Petra Kvitova to three sets.

Schiavone now takes on Sloane Stephens, which should be a fascinating encounter.  This will be Sloane’s first competitive match on grass in 2014.  Her W-L record at tournaments that weren’t Grand Slams or Premier Mandatory events is just 1-6 (at the two Grand Slams and three Premier Mandatories this year, Sloane has a 12-5 W-L record).  At a noteworthy event you would always give Sloane the edge, but in Birmingham, where Francesca has played well in the past, I think she could sweep up in this one.

Prediction: Schiavone d. Stephens in 2 tight sets

2. Stan Wawrinka v Marcos Baghdatis (ATP Queens, R2)

Marcos Baghdatis

Wednesday’s popcorn match of the day at Queens will feature the world number three, Stan Wawrinka and the always colourful, Marcos Baghdatis.  Now ranked at world number 118, Baghdatis played his first tournament in nearly two months last week in the ITF event at Nottingham.  The Cypriot didn’t lose a set on his way to winning the title.  Baghdatis is a terrific grass courter and will be a challenge for anyone on this surface.  Baghdatis made back-to-back semi-finals and quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

This will be Wawrinka’s first appearance since a surprising first round exit at Roland Garros to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.  Stan has had two HUGE stand-out performances this year, winning his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne and his first Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo.  Apart from those results, Stan’s year has been average at best.  He lost in the second round of Madrid to Dominic Thiem proving his vulnerability in the early rounds of tournaments.

Furthermore, his record on grass isn’t great.  He has twice made the fourth round at Wimbledon, but hasn’t been beyond the second round since 2009.  Wawrinka has won all four previous encounters with Baghdatis.  I fancy Marcos, who already has six grass court matches under his feet, to start well but Stan to rein it back.

Prediction: Wawrinka d. Baghdatis in 3 sets

WTA Birmingham 2nd Round Predictions

Virginie Razzano d. Klara Koukalova in 3 sets

Alison Riske d. Nadiia Kichenok in 2 sets

Zhang Shuai d. Shahar Peer in 2 tight sets

Magdalena Rybarikova d. Petra Cetkovska in 3 sets

Lucie Safarova d. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in 2 tight sets

Madison Keys d. Timea Babos in 2 very tight sets

Aleksandra Wozniak d. Johanna Konta in 3 sets

Camila Giorgi d. Kirsten Flipkens in 2 tight sets

Kimiko Date-Krumm d. Monica Puig in 3 sets

Casey Dellacqua d. Varvara Lepchenko in 3 tight sets

Sam Stosur d. Christina McHale in 3 sets

ATP Queens 2nd Round Predictions

Marinko Matosevic d. Lukas Lacko in 2 sets

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga d. David Goffin in 2 tight sets

Nicolas Mahut d. Edouard Roger-Vasselin in 3 sets

Dmitry Tursunov d. Jarkko Nieminen in 2 sets

Alexandr Dolgopolov d. Denis Istomin in 3 sets

Sergey Stakhovsky d. Vasek Pospisil in 2 tight sets

Radek Stepanek d. Bernard Tomic in 2 sets

Andy Murray d. Paul-Henri Mathieu in 2 sets

Ernests Gulbis d. Kenny De Schepper in 3 sets

Lleyton Hewitt d. Feliciano Lopez in 3 sets

Adrian Mannarino d. Victor Estrella-Burgos in 3 sets

ATP Halle 2nd Round Predictions

Philipp Kohlschreiber d. Pierre-Hugues Herbert in 2 tight sets

Alejandro Falla d. Robin Haase in 3 sets

Kei Nishikori d. Gael Monfils in 3 sets… no idea on this one.

Milos Raonic d. Peter Gojowczyk in 2 sets