The remaining second round matches at the 2019 WTA Korea Open 2019 will be played on Thursday, September 19 with Karolina Muchova leading the action. Here’re the Karolina Muchova v Timea Babos & Priscilla Hon v Ajla Tomljanovic tips and predictions with their previews.
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Patricia Tig v Paula Badosa Preview & Predictions
In what will be a second round match at the Korea Open, Patricia Tig and Paula Badosa will be meeting for the fourth time in their careers. And for now, Badosa, ranked 88th in the world, holds a 2-1 edge, which includes a win as recently as the 2019 Wimbledon where they had faced off in the qualifiers.
It’s been a comeback year for Tig, who had taken a break for more than a year from tennis to focus on her back issues last year. What that meant was she had to restart her career from the bottom of the WTA rankings pile and did a good job at that too, winning 45 of her 56 matches at the ITF level and WTA qualifiers.
Tig managed to qualify for the WTA Bucharest and then zoomed through to the final where she was finally beaten. That didn’t deter her from a title win at the Karlsruhe Open and a round of 16 appearance last week at Hiroshima. Having to go through the qualifiers again, Tig is now into the second round having also risen to 124th in the world.
And while Badosa is at her career-best of 88th, she will be wary of her opponent going into this match. Badosa is yet to win a title this year, and came into this tournament with three successive main draw defeats under her belt. She was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Jil Teichmann but this would be her real test.
Tip: Tig to win: 11/10 (Unibet)
Karolina Muchova v Timea Babos Preview & Predictions
The second round match between Karolina Muchova and Timea Babos is their first meeting ever. Muchova, who is nearly at her career-best ranking of 43rd in the world, enters this match as a favourite after her best ever year on hard court surfaces. This is on the back of a 19-7 win-loss record for her this year.
Muchova had made the third round earlier this year where she went down to Serena Williams and in her first match since then, overcame Alison van Uytvanck in her opener here. With a quarter-final at Wimbledon, a finals at the Prague Open and a quarter-final at Doha earlier this year, it won’t come as a surprise she starts at 1/2 to win this one.
Babos, after all, is currently struggling at the 92nd spot, and has chiefly featured at the lower circuit this season. Expecting a straight-set win over Muchova here.
Tip: Muchova to win in straight sets: 6/5 (888Sport)
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Priscilla Hon v Ajla Tomljanovic Preview & Predictions
Aussies Priscilla Hon and Ajla Tomljanovic will go head to head in their second round match on Thursday and it promises to be an exciting affair. Having never played each other before, both players are near their career-best rankings, with Hon having climbed to her best at 119th in the world, while Tomljanovic is 42nd, three spots lower than her best ever.
Tomljanovic also registered a 6-0, 6-2 win over Stefanie Voegele in her opener following on from her semi-final appearance at the Zhengzhou Open last week. That had been her best result since the Rabat Open semi-final early in May.
On the other hand, Hon’s been playing at the ITF circuit, and having had to go through qualifiers regularly to get to the main draw of WTA events. In fact, interestingly, she has been at the qualifiers of 12 tournaments and got through to the main draw six times this year, an indication that Tomljanovic could have a fight on her hands.
Tip: Tomljanovic to win in three sets: 3/1 (Unibet)