I’m enjoying this quieter week and being able to preview players who don’t often get a look in on Moo’s Tennis Blog.  I’ve missed the boat to write previews for Wednesday’s matches in Monterrey and none of the matches for Thursday in Kuala Lumpur look particularly inviting… therefore, i’ve decided to get ahead of the game and look at the second round matches that will be played in Monterrey on Thursday.

1. Caroline Garcia v Francesca Schiavone (Monterrey, R2)

In a match-up of two players heading in opposite directions in the rankings, the world number 29, Caroline Garcia will go up against the world number 70, Francesca Schiavone in Monterrey.  Garcia is coming off the back of a final appearance in Acapulco.  Her run through the draw was rather dreamy as Mirjana Lucic-Baroni retired hurt in the quarter-finals and Maria Sharapova was forced to pull out of their semi-final match with a stomach virus.  In the end, the withdrawals probably went against her as she was comfortably defeated in the final by Timea Bacsinszky, 6-3 6-0.  In the first round of Monterrey, Garcia beat Karin Knapp, 7-5 7-6(5).  Garcia is still having her off days, but it is encouraging to see her winning these types of matches, which I am not convinced she would have won last year.

Schiavone made a poor start to the year, but she’s turning it around.  She qualified for the main draw in Antwerp and then reached the quarter-finals after a superb victory over Angelique Kerber.  Schiavone won two rounds of qualifying in Doha but just came up short in the final round.  In the first round of Monterrey, the Italian player won a wild first rounder against Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 3-6 7-6(3) 6-4.

Garcia and Schiavone have met just once before on the WTA tour with Garcia coming through in qualifying for Paris in 2013, 7-6(2) 6-2.  Garcia has become a more consistent player over the last year, but she is nowhere near the finished article and still needs to work on her mentality.  I have to admit i’m a little surprised that Schiavone is still playing on the WTA tour, but I think it’s great.  She still seems to be enjoying her tennis and will always be a tricky opponent with her ability to do something a bit different.  I’d take Garcia in this one, but a fired-up Schiavone could certainly make things interesting.

Prediction: Garcia d. Schiavone in 2 tight sets

2. Daniela Hantuchova v Urszula Radwanska (Monterrey, R2)

Daniela Hantuchova‘s spirit has really shone through on the tennis court in the last month.  After a generally mediocre 2014 season, Hantuchova has had more to smile about in 2015.  She won her 7th WTA title in Pattaya City and her first since 2013 (Birmingham).  It was a really gutsy set of performances from Hantuchova, who won three setters against Zarina Diyas, Marina Erakovic and Ajla Tomljanovic.  Hantuchova then flew to Dubai and with just one hour’s rest, managed to win her first round match against Mona Barthel, 7-6(5) 3-6 6-3.  In the first round of Monterrey, Hantuchova enjoyed another really satisfying victory as she recovered from a double break down in the decider and saved match points to defeat Monica Puig, 7-6(1) 3-6 7-5 in two hours and 46 minutes.  Finishing at 2am, it marked the end of a packed schedule in Monterrey after rain had wiped out Monday’s order of play.  Hantuchova’s reward is a day off and a second round match against Urszula Radwanska.

The younger of the the Radwanska sisters is back on the rise after a pretty horrid 2014 season.  After missing Australia due to a shoulder injury, Radwanska looked a shadow of the player that had cracked the top 30 towards the end of 2012.  Now ranked at 141 in the world, Radwanska is having to qualify for WTA events and doing a pretty good job at it.  In 2015, she has successfully qualified for Auckland, Melbourne and Monterrey.  In fact, Radwanska has already wracked up 12 wins compared to the 17 that she amassed in 2014.  One of those wins for Radwanska came against Hantuchova in the second round of Auckland, 1-6 6-3 6-1.  Radwanska leads the head-to-head with Hantuchova, 3-2 and has won their last three matches.  Urszula will have that confidence from the head-to-head, but I think Hantuchova should be feeling good about her game right now having scooped the title in Pattaya and also, winning her last five consecutive three set matches.  I’m going for Daniela…

Prediction: Hantuchova d. U.Radwanska in 3 sets

WTA Kuala Lumpur 2nd round predictions

Caroline Wozniacki d. Lin Zhu in 2 sets

Carina Witthoeft d. Klara Koukalova in 3 sets

Su-Wei Hsieh d. Misa Eguchi in 3 sets

WTA Monterrey 2nd round predictions for Wednesday

Vera Zvonareva d. Kristina Mladenovic in 3 sets *I wish I had time to preview this one*

Polona Hercog d. Magdalena Rybarikova in 3 sets

Sara Errani d. Timea Babos in 3 sets

Ana Ivanovic d. Pauline Parmentier in 2 sets

WTA Monterrey 2nd round predictions for Thursday

Timea Bacsinszky d. Lesia Tsurenko in 2 sets

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova d. Johanna Larsson in 3 sets

Poll result: A whopping 83% of readers correctly predicted that Julia Goerges would beat Kateryna Kozlova in Kuala Lumpur.  I was quite surprised with the scoreline as Goerges won, 6-1 6-2.