French Open 2nd Round Predictions, Day 5: Li-Mattek-Sands, Stosur-Mladenovic

1. Li Na v Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Li Na

The 2011 Roland Garros Champion, Li Na has a pretty mean draw this year and she overcame her first challenge with a hard fought 6-3 6-4 victory over the veteran clay courter, Anabel Medina Garrigues.  Her next opponent will be Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who has been on a hot streak of form with 17 wins from her last 23 matches including a final appearance in Kuala Lumpur and a semi-final appearance in the Premier event in Stuttgart.  She enjoyed a really solid win in the first round against Lourdes Dominguez Lino, 6-4 6-1, who can moonball her opponents into submission.  Mattek-Sands was always a player I felt that was mentally weak, but she has really matured in the last year and become a much more solid player.  Li defeated Mattek-Sands in the American's best tournament of the year at Stuttgart, 6-4 6-3.  Li has been a bit shaky in her last few tournaments, but I think she will overcame a tricky match...

Prediction - Li to beat Mattek-Sands in 3 sets

2. Sam Stosur v Kristina Mladenovic

Following a rain drenched opening to Day 3, Sam Stosur was one of the fastest finishers before the rain clouds set in again as she thrashed Kimiko Date-Krumm, 6-0 6-2.  Her second round opponent will be the Frenchwoman, Kristina Mladenovic who beat out Lauren Davis, 6-0 7-5.  It was her first ever win at Roland Garros and all in all, she has enjoyed a solid 2013 so far, flourishing at the Paris indoor event where she made the semi-finals.  Stosur and Mladenovic have never played before, but Mladenovic is bound to have a boost playing in front of her crowd.  Stosur has really picked up her form following an injury plagued American hard court season and has always done well at RG.  She has got a really tough draw this year, but I think she should make it into round three where Jelena Jankovic could await...

Prediction - Stosur to beat Mladenovic in 2 tight sets

3. Fernando Verdasco v Janko Tipsarevic

Janko Tipsarevic

It has been a rough clay court season for Janko Tipsarevic and to be honest, a terrible 2013 season so far.  He managed to come through his first round match with Nicolas Mahut in straight sets, which will have given the Serb a smidgeon of confidence.  He faces an uphill struggle though as he takes on Fernando Verdasco in round two, who has started to play a lot better on the clay having made a solid run in Madrid, defeating Milos Raonic and taking Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to three sets.  I am not a fan of either player, but I think you have to take note of their recent form; Verdasco had a solid opener with a straight sets win over Marc Gicquel and I am not even looking at the head-to-head... Verdasco for the win.

Prediction - Verdasco to beat Tipsarevic in 4 sets

4. Maria Sharapova v Eugenie Bouchard

Gael Monfils's epic win over Tomas Berdych on Monday forced Maria Sharapova onto Suzanne Lenglen court to open the defence of her Roland Garros title, but it did not affect her in the slightest as she made a fast start with a 6-2 6-1 victory over Hsieh Su-Wei.  In the second round, Sharapova faces an interesting match against Eugenie Bouchard, who enjoyed her first Grand Slam win over Tsvetana Pironkova overcoming a shaky second set collapse to eventually win in straight sets, 6-1 7-6(2).  I don't expect this to be much of a contest, but it will be a very good test for Bouchard to see how she is developing and where her game is at when matched with the very best on the tour.

Prediction - Sharapova to beat Bouchard in 2 sets

Best of the rest: 2nd round womens predictions

Paula Ormaechea to beat Yaroslava Shvedova in 3 sets
Kaia Kanepi to beat Stephanie Voegele in 2 sets
Maria Kirilenko to beat Ashleigh Barty in 2 sets

Marion Bartoli to beat Mariana Duque-Marino in 3 sets

Francesca Schiavone to beat Kirsten Flipkens in 2 tight sets

Alize Cornet to beat Silvia Soler-Espinosa in 2 tight sets
Victoria Azarenka to beat Annika Beck in 2 sets

Petra Kvitova to beat Peng Shuai in 3 sets
Jamie Hampton to beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in 2 tight sets

Jelena Jankovic to beat Garbine Muguruza in 2 sets
Dominika Cibulkova to beat Marina Erakovic in 3 sets

Sloane Stephens to beat Vania King in 2 sets
Zheng Jie to beat Melanie Oudin in 2 tight sets

Best of the rest: 2nd round mens predictions

Novak Djokovic to beat Guido Pella in 3 sets
Grigor Dimitrov to beat Lucas Pouille in 3 sets

Victor Hanescu to beat Dmitry Tursunov in 4 sets

Philipp Kohlschreiber to beat Yen-Hsun Lu in 3 sets

Tommy Haas to beat Jack Sock in 4 tight sets

John Isner to beat Ryan Harrison in 3 sets

Mikhail Youzhny to beat Federico Del Bonis in 3 sets

Rafael Nadal to beat Martin Klizan in 3 sets

Fabio Fognini to beat Lukas Rosol in 5 sets
Benoit Paire to beat Lukas Kubot in 3 sets

Stanislas Wawrinka to beat Horacio Zeballos in 3 sets
Jerzy Janowicz to beat Robin Haase in 4 sets

Kei Nishikori to beat Grega Zemlja in 3 sets

Nikolay Davydenko to beat Denis Istomin in 5 sets

Richard Gasquet to beat Michael Przysiezny in 3 sets 

My original womens predictions are looking reasonable so far and I managed to correctly predict 29 out of 32 first round results in the bottom half.  The mens has been so-so; a lot of early seeded upsets have flopped rather spectacularly and I lost my first quarter-finalist in Gulbis, who fell to the French magic of Gael Monfils in 4 sets today.

Moo's Original WTA Predictions
Moo's Original ATP Predictions