This is a quiet week on the WTA tour with just one event coming from Bogota, Columbia.  Next week is Stuttgart (YAY) and i’ll be releasing a post later this week with some of my favourite matches from this tournament over the past five years.  The international event in Bogota has developed a bit of a cult following among WTA tennis fanatics.  Jelena has showed up in the last couple of years but not this year unfortunately.  It’s not a great draw but I thought heyyyy, let’s do a quick rundown of the draw including a few predictions to give you all a good laugh…

Elina Svitolina headlines Bogota and is the only top 50 player in the draw.  On paper, she should waltz through, but she does have a few players in her draw that could cause her some issues.  Svitolina, who won just four matches on red clay last year, opens against Louisa Chirico.  She could meet Danka Kovinic in the second round, who had a superb run in Charleston, reaching the quarter-finals where she lost in three sets to Andrea Petkovic.  The number eight seed in this draw is Irina Falconi and she opens against Sorana Cirstea.  The Romanian player was slumping last year and hasn’t played much in 2015 due to a shoulder injury.  Cirstea is 0-4 for the year in WTA/ITF events and has yet to win even a set.  Cirstea needs a break somewhere to get some momentum going and this *could* be a good opportunity for her…. it could also be another loss!

Francesca Schiavone heads up the second quarter as we move into her favourite stage of the year.  Schiavone fell at the first round of the French Open last year, but did have a good run in Rome where she defeated Eugenie Bouchard and Garbine Muguruza.  Five of her seven victories in 2015 have come in Antwerp where she reached the quarter-finals.  She plays Teliana Pereira in the first round; the 26-year-old Brazilian is at her best on the clay and reached the semi-finals in Rio last year.  Shelby Rogers is the other seed in this quarter; she won her first WTA match of the year in Charleston, but will likely have her hands full in the first round with clay court veteran, Lourdes Dominguez Lino.

The third quarter is big hitter city with Timea Babos and Ajla Tomljanovic the two seeds.  Babos opens against Marina Duque-Marino and could meet the in-form, Tatjana Maria in the second round.  Maria won an ITF title earlier this year in Midland and also qualified for the main draws of Melbourne and Miami, beating Eugenie Bouchard in the latter.  Her slice-dominated game could be a handful for any power player on this surface.  Since reaching the final of Pattaya City, Tomljanovic has really struggled for wins.  Tomljanovic went on a three match losing streak, snapping it in Charleston, but hardly restoring confidence after going down in the second round to Andreea Mitu, 6-2 6-2.  Her first match of the week will be against Alexandra Panova, who nearly bagged the upset win against Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open.  Tomljanovic won their only previous match in Moscow last year, 6-4 4-6 6-3.

The final quarter is rounded out by Monica Puig and Yaroslava Shvedova.  Puig is a player who has shown promise, but never really followed through on it.  In her last tournament in Miami, she lost to Irina Falconi in straight sets.  It was a jarring loss as she threw everything into it, almost too much if that’s possible.  She had her coach, Ricardo Sanchez on at the changeover, who took on sheets of paper.  She looked completely disinterested and it was a very odd moment. Her first two matches could be against qualifiers.  On paper, I feel like she should be winning tournaments like this, but I don’t feel confident about her reliability in beating players ranked below her.  The same could be said for Shvedova, who frequently lets her nerves get the better of her.  On her day though she is a fine tennis player and if she can keep it together, she could go deep in this draw.

Final Prediction: Schiavone d. Shvedova