WTA Madrid: Ivanovic edges Mattek-Sands, 2nd round predictions for Monday

Ana Ivanovic

Today was a completely packed day of tennis that saw its fair share of shocks.  Li Na was scheduled to play Tamira Paszek, but her late withdrawal saw Madison Keys drafted in as a late lucky loser.  It was tough on Li, who suddenly had a much tougher task and she completely fell flat with a ton of errors as Keys earnt her first top ten win with a 6-3 6-2 victory.  Caroline Wozniacki also exited in Madrid and is yet to win a set on red clay in her first two matches.  She lost to Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-2 6-4, who managed to overcome the customary jitters to set up a second rounder with Kirsten Flipkens.



Jelena Jankovic and Francesca Schiavone also fell on the second day of action; JJ went down in a tight three setter to Chanelle Scheepers, who stopped a potential JJ-Ana second round match, meanwhile Schiavone lost in straight sets to Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor, 6-2 7-5.  Perhaps the best match of the day was the first rounder between Ana Ivanovic and Bethanie Mattek-Sands; I was cursing my prediction of Ivanovic to the quarters when I found out she had drawn the toughest of the qualifiers, Mattek-Sands, as she proved her worth to steal a stunning opening set, 12-10 on the tiebreak.  An injury seemed to derail her in the second and third sets, but it was a very solid opener for Ivanovic to get through.  

 

In other matches, Serena Williams looked rusty but rolled to victory after a tight opening set against Yulia Putintseva, 7-6(5) 6-1.  Angelique Kerber and Petra Kvitova both prevailed in three sets having lost the opening set of their matches against Hsieh Su-Wei and Yanina Wickmayer respectively.  The womens 1st round concludes tomorrow and the ATP draw properly kicks off, but there will also be three second round matches from the WTA draw as wel...

Agnieszka Radwanska v Laura Robson

It has been a really tough few months for Laura Robson, who has struggled to string anything together following an upset win over Petra Kvitova at the Australian Open.  She managed to bag her first win on red clay this year with a hard fought 6-7(4) 6-2 6-2 win over Magdalena Rybarikova in round one.  She now takes on newly-blonde, Aga Radwanska who avenged a 2012 loss to Tsvetana Pironkova with a relatively comfortable 6-2 6-4 victory.  This will be a first career match-up and we all know that Robson always raises her game for a big gun.  She definitely has a shot against Radwanska, but I think confidence-wise, she will not quite be in the right place to pull off the win.

Prediction - Radwanska to beat Robson in 3 sets

Best of the rest: WTA Madrid 2nd round predictions
Angelique Kerber to beat Alize Cornet in 2 tight sets
Sara Errani to beat Sorana Cirstea in 2 sets