Please note that during Wimbledon, predictions for all matches each day will be uploaded to a tab at the top of the page instead of appearing in daily previews. For the WTA click HERE and ATP click HERE. I’m going to be at Wimbledon on Monday (Court 3) and Friday (Court 1) so i’ll have more photos this week! I’ll also be doing the regular previews but since i’ll be watching so much more tennis, i’m hoping to have some time to do some other features starting from Tuesday. I’ll be tweeting on my Twitter account @MooTennisBlog at Wimby tomorrow and all during the Championships. I’ll also be uploading photo albums to my Facebook page HERE. As i’ll be out tomorrow, here are my previews for the best women’s matches set for Tuesday. It’s nearly time… enjoy everyone!!!!
1. Ana Konjuh v Alize Cornet (R1, Fourth Quarter)
My favourite match from the bottom half of the women’s draw features the number 25 seed, Alize Cornet up against the 17-year-old, Ana Konjuh. This is a very intriguing match as Konjuh won the warm-up event in Nottingham.. Konjuh defeated Shelby Rogers, Casey Dellacqua, Sachia Vickery, Alison Riske and Monica Niculescu to claim her first ever WTA title. Konjuh showed some promise last year by qualifying for both the Australian Open and Wimbledon. At Sw19, she reached the third round scoring superb wins over Marina Erakovic and Yanina Wickmayer before falling to Caroline Wozniacki. Konjuh hadn’t had a great year up till Nottingham on the WTA tour with second round appearances at Auckland, Prague and the French Open. However, Konjuh is still very young and learning her trade on the tour so there will be plenty of ups and down at this early stage of her career. Her game has much potential but still needs quite a bit of refinement.
Cornet has had a rough grass court season, losing her first matches in Birmingham and Eastbourne. She won first set against Christina McHale in Birmingham, but lost in three and then she was beaten handily by Alison Riske in Birmingham, 6-0 6-3. Cornet has had a disappointing season based on the standards she set herself last year. Her best results have come at the Slams where she reached the third round of the Australian Open and the fourth round of the French Open. Konjuh didn’t beat anyone inside the top 45 in her Nottingham run, but she should bring tons of confidence with her into Wimby. Perhaps i’m not giving Alize enough credit but on this surface, I think Ana will score the upset win.
Prediction: Konjuh d. Cornet in 2 sets
2. Timea Bacsinszky v Julia Goerges (R1, Third Quarter)
I was gutted to not see Timea Bacsinszky at Eastbourne as i’m eager to watch her live and get some photos! Bacsinszky skipped both Birmingham and Eastbourne, and I couldn’t find a reason for this. Timea has played a gruelling year and so many more matches than she has ever been used to so it may have been just to rest up. This means she has had no competitive matches before Wimbledon. To put into perspective how far Bacsinszky has come in the last year, she had to qualify for Wimbledon last year. One year on and Timea is the number 15 seed.
Bacsinszky has drawn Julia Goerges, which could be a tricky one. Goerges has reached the last 16 at the two Slams this year. In Melbourne, Goerges beat Belinda Bencic in the first round, 6-2 6-1 and defeated Caroline Wozniacki in the second round at Roland Garros. Other than those results, Goerges hasn’t done a great deal with two quarter-finals in Auckland and Kuala Lumpur. Her only match on grass was a three set loss in Eastbourne qualifying to Tatjana Maria.
The pair have split their two previous matches (both in 2010) with Goerges winning on clay in Bad Gastein and Bacsinszky winning in a third set tiebreak in Beijing. Bacsinszky has improved so much in the last few years and she has so many dimensions to her game. Goerges could find some rhythm, but it’s likely that Bacsinszky will have plenty of tricks up her sleeve to unsettle the German. I fancy three sets, but Timea to survive.
Prediction: Bacsinszky d. Goerges in 3 sets
3. Agnieszka Radwanska v Lucie Hradecka (R1, Fourth Quarter)
It’s difficult to sum up Agnieszka Radwanska‘s grass court season. After a very lacklustre year, there were positive signs in both Nottingham and Eastbourne. In Nottingham, Radwanska reached the semi-finals with three straight set wins over Alla Kudryavtseva, Christina McHale and Lauren Davis where she didn’t lose more than three games in any of the sets she played. In Eastbourne, she won another four matches with victories over Irina Falconi, Karolina Pliskova, Tsvetana Pironkova and Sloane Stephens. However, both tournaments ended up with pretty crushing third set losses that featured a bagel. The loss to Monica Niculescu in Nottingham was particularly surprising and in Eastbourne, she had no answers against Belinda Bencic in the final. It was tough to watch the post-match interview as Aga was clearly welling up.
Radwanska’s first match at Wimbledon will be against Lucie Hradecka who can be a right handful. In fact, Radwanska has never beaten Hradecka in three previous encounters. It is worth nothing though that those matches took place in 2005 and 2006. Still, this is the type of match-up that Aga struggles with against a big server who can zone. Hradecka’s grass court season has been slightly underwhelming with just one victory in Birmingham. She has enjoyed an excellent year up till now with her best runs coming in Charleston and Prague where she reached the semi-finals and final respectively and as a qualifier. It will be interesting to see where Aga’s head is after the loss to Bencic but I think she will be too solid for Hradecka.
Prediction: Radwanska d. Hradecka in 2 tight sets
How far Bouchard will go????second round or a first round exit.
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At least first round. If Duan beats her, I have nothing to day.
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And my only big punt is on Broady to defeat Duque-Marino. At 1.81 I feel its a nice price to back the young Brit.
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Ying Ying can make her life difficult, she has nothing to lose or prove but Canadian Princess has lot to prove with millions of dollars contract at stake.
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I don’t think Duan can trouble Bouchard. Broady is likely to win.
I also think Domi will beat Dani and Daria over Begu.
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What u guys think about azarenka vs kontaveit. Don’t know this konta player. Azarenka in 2…
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Chuffed with Serena and Novak winning. Both looked rusty and nervous, but still through pretty comfortably.
Ana Ivanovic nearly perfect striking. Shame she’s got such a rough draw being in a section with Bencic, Pironkova, Azarenka and the Williams sisters.
Pliskova overcame a surprisingly competitive match. Falconi was wonderful in that second set!
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Not sure if Ana was flattering to deceive, but she did play some rather good clean grass tennis. She looked particularly strong and sharp.
Shame about the top half, someone is going to go through the wringer before they reach the finals. Victoria looked equally fresh and smart, so did Sharapova who was as strong as ever and sniffles free this time. Even Venus looked lively in her matchup.
As a tennis fan, I couldn’t ask for better matchups, but as a player this is going to be a burdensome section for sure!
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Sharapova did look very sharp. Konta was more miss than hit today, but the opportunities that she had were very calmly handled by Maria.
Azarenka never really looked under pressure. But then it’s the top twenty players who she’s struggled against this year.
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Ana played well yesterday! I’m really looking forward to her R2 match against BMS.
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I am hoping Radwanska’s defeat in the final of Eastbourne will make her not take things likely against Hradecka especially if she has a losing record against her.
However, Hradecka has a real shot against Radwanska if she takes a set, considering Radwanska has a terrible 3 sets W-L record this year.
I have seen Hradecka’s serve in doubles, she serves BOMBS, though I think Radwanska is good at returning the serves. Also Hradecka did beat Ivanovic this year in the 1st round at Australian Open, so I doubt she will have any doubts against Radwanska.
This match can go either way in my opinion.
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Hradecka has played some awesome tennis this year. Honestly I’d like to see her make a good run.
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Watson made a mistake in my opinion by saying no to third set for today, she was getting into rhythm and hitting the ball intelligently. I fear tomorrow will not prove fruitful for her.
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I feel like Garcia was getting back into it actually and probably would have taken a third set. As it stands she’s going to have to ponder what went wrong because she seemed to fall apart for no real reason…
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I think so too, cause Garcia always starts the hotter of the two. Unless her coach can drill some quick hard counter measures into her before tomorrow, I feel Caroline would come on too strong just for a single set. Tomorrow will tell.
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You are right. She should continue the 3rd set. Garcia will win.
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agree with you guys. Watson already won though. #commentoftheday
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Thing w Garcia is although she plays the opening sets by storm, her opponents have plenty of samples to adapt to her game-which she doesn’t change much and if anything becomes increasingly liable. Not as bad as Bouchard who’s game breaks downs though. Hence all those 3 set losses.
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Wooohoooooooooo….Canadian Princess is crushed….thats what happens when you are on a high with Green -Green Dollar’s….finally arrogance dumped her….
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Vivek..you predicted she lost. Thank you because I put some money on Duan.
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Well i also owe you lot’s of perfect predictions….the recent one in Eastbourne…Thanks a ton
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And now there is a scare for the Romanian Princess….Cepelova is playing like a top 20 player and Halep has to do a lot of moving….what a good match
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Halep is the next one to go. This tournament is fun.
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Top casualty of the day….lots more to come in my opinion till round of 16
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yeah..Jana just played with minimum unforced errors. Her slides just killed Halep on the net.
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I thought its the end of day for upsets in Women’s draw but now seems Danish Queen is under threat…..Chinese attack all over…Hope the Dan saves the day atleast for her Dad…:))
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Carla Suarez-Navarro was completely dismantled by Ostapenko. Caroline Woz. is going to live and fight another day.
With Halep, it may just be fatigue, but she played a very poor mental game by her own high standards, even when she had her opponent on the run she never came forward to cover the net. Her choices were too poor for a top player.
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