The final second round matches take place later today in Stanford, as four of the top five seeds are in action in the Bank of the West Classic. Here are my picks for the matches today!
Caroline Wozniacki vs Vavara Lepchenko
Top seed and world number 5 Caroline Wozniacki starts her campaign against Vavara Lepchenko today. Wozniacki has had an average year- She’s No. 11 on the Road to Singapore- and will be looking to start well on what was a strong part of the year for her last year. The former world no.1 faces Vavara Lepchenko in her first match. Lepchenko came through 3-6 6-2 7-6 vs Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the first round, but will be rested after having a day off on tuesday. Lepchenko certainly has the game to beat Wozniacki and was a semi-finalist here last year, but has only won one set in four meetings against the Dane.
Prediction: Wozniacki in 2
Karolina Pliskova vs Kimiko Date Krumm
Karolina Pliskova will look to bounce back after a disappointing Wimbledon with a run in her first hard court tournament of the summer. She faces a woman almost 22 years older than her in Kimiko Date Krumm. The Japanese qualifier was a set and 4-1 down to Sabine Lisicki, but was able to then play consistently and take advantage of the German’s errors to pull off a stunning 1-6 7-6 6-2 victory. Pliskova serves big like Lisicki, but is more consistent and usually makes few errors so Krumm will be able to rely on few cheap points if the Czech is at her best. If Pliskova plays well there can only be one winner, surely?
Prediction: Pliskova in 2
Angelique Kerber vs Ana Konjuh
Two women who were impressive in their first round matches face off here. 17 year old Konjuh was impressive in a 6-3 6-4 victory over Saisai Zheng, whilst 5th seed Kerber was extremely impressive in a 6-1 6-3 victory over the tricky Daria Gavrilova. Kerber is clearly the favourite on paper, due to her better all-round game and experience, but will need to be careful to not give Konjuh many second serves, as this is Kerber’s main weakness and Konjuh must attack any second serves she gets. Konjuh should also try and finish points quickly, as Kerber is a good counter puncher and will be the favourite the longer the rallies get.
Prediction: Kerber in 2
Misaki Doi vs Agnieszka Radwanska
There is a lot of interest going into this match, following the news that this match was delayed to today so Radwanska could have more time to recover from a back injury. Whatever your view on this decision is (Personally, I don’t think it should be allowed) the match between Radwanska and Japanese qualifier Misaki Doi is going ahead today. Usually you would expect Radwanska to cruise through this match, but the injury news makes this match much more uncertain- Will Radwanska be fit and ready? If she was fit, I would have predicted Radwanska to win in straight sets, but now it’s almost impossible to predict the result as there is far too much uncertainty going into it.
Also in action
There is Germany vs China in the doubles, as Mona Barthel and Sabine Lisicki face Yi-Fan Xu and Saisai Zheng. The Chinese Taipei pair Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan face Kateryna Bondarenko and Tatjana Maria, whilst Ajla Tomljanovic and Asia Muhammad face Gabriela Dabrowski and Alicja Rosolska.
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