There is just one WTA International tournament this week in Katowice, Poland and it is a new tournament gracing the tour. Katowice is played on indoor clay, like Stuttgart and I am interested to see the main draw get underway as the venue looks impressive. Lets take a look at the draw...
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| Sabine Lisicki |
Petra Kvitova is the top seed and I think it is a wise choice for her to play this week as her game always thrives indoors. Her draw looks routine with Misaka Doi in round one and then the winner of a clash between Vesna Dolonc and Mandy Minella in the second round. Kvitova is projected to meet Alize Cornet in the quarter-finals, who has become a pretty tough competitor on tour these days and demonstrated that with a 4th round showing in Miami.
The top half is certainly much stronger than the bottom half with Sabine Lisicki and Julia Goerges headlining the second section. Goerges loves the clay and was terrific on her way to the title in Stuttgart two years ago so the conditions are likely to suit her game. Lisicki fell in round two at Charleston, but I am still positive about her finding some good form over the next few months. Both Goerges and Lisicki will take on qualifiers in the first round.
Laura Robson is also in the draw, but will be hard pushed to get past Lourdes Dominguez Lino, a real clay courter in round one. Dominguez Lino is the kind of player that can frustrate the youngsters and she is a real grinder on the clay. She has also beaten Robson on the faster surface of Beijing at the back end of 2012. Klara Zakopalova is the number three seed and will take on Kristyna Pliskova in the first round. Zakopalova has had a great season so far and should crack the top 20 in next week's rankingss.
The final section is where I see some surprises; it is great to see the return of Kaia Kanepi, who has a winnable match against Sandra Zaniewska in her first match of 2013. I fancy Karolina Pliskova to beat a rusty Kanepi in the second round though. Roberta Vinci is the number two seed and takes on the out-of-form, Andrea Hlavackova in round one. She would then face the winner of an intriguing opener between Lara Arruabarena and Kiki Bertens. Vinci had a great run to the quarter-finals in Miami, but I have a feeling she will fall victim to an early upset and I am backing Bertens to have a super tournament...
1st Round Predictions:
Kvitova to beat Doi in 2 sets
Dolonc to beat Minella in 2 tight sets
Begu to beat Johansson in 2 tight sets
Dominguez Lino to beat Robson in 3 sets
Rybarikova to beat Cepelova in 3 sets
Zakopalova to beat Pliskova in 3 sets
Kanepi to beat Zaniewska in 2 sets
Bertens to beat Arruabarena in 3 sets
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| Final Prediction - Petra Kvitova d. Kiki Bertens |
You can view my full predictions for Katowice HERE
Hi,
ReplyDeleteNice preview!
How do you see Vesna Dolonc doing on Clay. She´s more a hard court player or??? Cause as far as I remember Mandy Minella is favoring the clay courts. And do you know what type of clay it is. Fast or slow?? Cheers
Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, do not know a great deal about Dolonc. Neither player has been in great form of late, particularly Minella although she is a good clay courter and all her best results have been on clay. I went on instinct with this one, we shall see the result tomorrow!
And not sure about the speed of the court. It's indoors so imagine it plays a bit faster than normal red clay. Hope to try and catch a bit of the action tomorrow and answer your question a bit better ;-)
Hi again,
ReplyDeleteThanks for answer, yeah same here, Dolonc is not so known in my book as well. I followed and had a few bets against Mandy recently. And yes both players seems out of form these days, but I think the faster the court might favour Dolonc a little bit. Indeed a tricky one so better skip and just watch. Noticed though that this will be first game on clay for Dolonc in 2013. So think she will loose at least a set here....Good luck and nice site you have created!