The WTA Toray Pan Pacific 2019 first round matches will continue on Tuesday, September 17 and you can get all the information on the Madison Keys v Daria Kasatkina & Donna Vekic v Caroline Garcia tips and predictions with their previews.
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Madison Keys v Daria Kasatkina Preview
In what will be their sixth meeting, Madison Keys will go head to head with Daria Kasatkina in the first round at the Pan Pacific Open.
And if someone had any doubts why Keys goes into this match at 3/8 as opposed to 45/17 for Kasatkina to win this, here’s one of the most important reasons why – their head to head. Keys leads 5-0, and Kasatkina, ranked 40th in the world, has won just one set against her.
Their last match came as recently as the Cincinnati Open in the second round where Keys rammed past Kasatkina 6-4, 6-1. Keys had gone on to win the title at Cincinnati and then made the fourth round at US Open where she was beaten by Elina Svitolina.
Kasatkina, who had made the top 10 on the WTA rankings, has fallen to 40th in the world, and her results this year have been testimonial to that. On hard court surfaces she is 5-10 this year, having fallen in round 1 at the US Open and not won successive matches since the Rome Open in May.
Tip: Keys to win in straight sets: 3/4 (888Sport)
Donna Vekic v Caroline Garcia Preview
This is an interesting match-up for a first round match at this tournament. After all, Donna Vekic is ranked 21st in the world while Caroline Garcia starts off 30th, barely much of a difference. Also, these two players have featured in seven matches against each other and Garcia leads 4-3.
These seven have been spread over seven years and over four different types of courts and that is what makes this the match to watch out on the WTA circuit on Tuesday. Their last meeting came at the Nottingham Open in the final with Garcia winning her first title of the year. Vekic is yet to win one since 2017.
However, Vekic has risen to her career-best ranking thanks to her quarter-final appearance at the US Open. Garcia, on the other hand, has seen her form taper away since that Nottingham Open win, losing seven of her previous 10 matches.
Tip: Vekic to win in three sets: 3/1 (888Sport)
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Petra Martic v Yulia Putintseva Preview
Petra Martic was 3-7 on win-loss on hard court surfaces coming into the US Open and it looked like a couple of underwhelming tournaments could follow on from there. At the year’s final major she made it to the fourth round – her best showing at US Open – and followed it up with a runner-up trophy at the Zhengzhou Open last week.
In getting to the final – where she lost to Karolina Pliskova – she defeated Aryna Sabalenka and Kristina Mladenovic and that should boost her confidence no end.
That same competition, at Zhengzhou saw Putintseva struggle to win her opener before going down to Elina Svitolina after that. And that has been the story of the season for the 36th-ranked Kazakh after her title win at Nurnberg. She’s managed to win two matches in a row just twice and now faces a stiff first round opponent at this Toray pan Pacific Open.
Question is if Martic has enough left in her tank to get past her opponent.
Tip: Over 20.5 games in the match: 8/11 (888Sport)
Garbine Muguruza v Su-Wei Hsieh Preview
These two have played each other once before and Su-Wei Hsieh was a straight-set winner in that second round match at the Australian Open. Muguruza’s troubles didn’t stop there though. A semi-final at the 2018 French Open aside, she hasn’t made it past the fourth round of any of the Grand Slams since and was knocked out in round one at both Wimbledon and US Open earlier this year.
The former world number one, as a result, has fallen to 26th in the world, and enters this competition on the back of four successive defeats. There has been a change in the backroom staff following her loss to Alison Riske in the first round, and she would hope things can be turned around.
Hsieh was the top seed at the Hiroshima tournament last week but was bounced out at the quarter-final stage by the eventual winner Nao Hibino. And that has been the story of the year for her throughout, with a couple of wins followed by a defeated on most occasions.
In fact it’s been 14 tournaments since Hsieh won three matches in the same competition, something for Muguruza to cheer about.
Tip: Muguruza to win: 4/5 (888Sport)