The WTA Tour continues with selected round of 16 matches from the Ladies Championships Lausanne on Wednesday the 17th of July 2019. Check out our full betting preview below.
WTA Tour 2019 | WTA International
Ladies Championships Lausanne
Tennis Club Stade Lausanne (Clay)
Round of 16 Matches | 17 July 2019
Caroline Garcia (5/10)
vs Bernarda Pera (14/10)
This always struck me as a slightly strange post-Wimbledon affair, with the ladies tour reverting back to clay prior to the American hard-court season. Croatian-born-American, Bernarda Pera, will be looking to cause an upset against the more fancied Garcia. Pera has a preference for the harder surfaces, as seen in her third-round showing in Melbourne last year. Having said that, the 24-year-old Pera did manage a semi-final showing at this year’s Prague Open. But her form has been wildly inconsistent for much of the season. Her victory in the ITF Slovakia event highlighted her conundrum. She is in a limbo phase between the two tours. Her comfortable victory over Gatteo-Monticone in the opening round will give her some confidence going into this match. She only lost three games in the entire match, with a first-serve percentage touching 80%. She will need to use that weapon very effectively against the tough Frenchwoman.
Caroline Garcia is a former World Number Four who has fallen slightly in the pecking order of late. Her year to date results make for fascinating reading, accentuating her mercurial qualities. The owner of seven WTA titles, Garcia battled in the opening salvos of 2019. But she found her feet on the clay-courts of Strasbourg, culminating in a runner-up finish. She then went one step further by claiming an excellent victory in Nottingham. She will have felt devastated by a poor opening round defeat at Wimbledon. So recent form seems to suggest that the powerful baseliner is improving as the year progresses. It also demonstrates her all-court capacity. Her demolition of Lottner in the opening match seems to suggest that the number 2 seed will take some beating this week.
On paper, this one is Garcia’s all the way. The return to clay certainly favours the Frenchwoman. One thing to Pera’s advantage will be unfamiliarity. This will be their first encounter. Pera is a lefty, which is not exactly a common commodity on the WTA Tour. But ultimately I think Garcia makes for some decent value at 8/15.
Anastasia Potapova (1/4)
vs Tamara Korpatsch (26/10)
This should be a fascinating duel between two contemporary baseliners. 24-year-old German Tamara Korpatsch made her WTA Tour debut at the 2016 Gstaad event. She claimed the 2017 National German Championship. She is yet to make her Grand Slam debut, as she battles to come to terms with the demands of the WTA Tour. Her best result this year came on the clay of Prague, which should give her at least a modicum of confidence. Furthermore, Korpatsch was responsible for the demise of Eugenie Bouchard in the opening round, scuppering the former top 10 player’s latest attempt at a career revival. What works in the German’s favour this week is her record on clay. She managed nine ITF finals on clay, winning seven of those events. That included a victory over Timea Bacsinszky in Biarritz. So she will look at this as a guilt-edged opportunity to make a real WTA impression.
Anastasia Potapova is yet another Russian in that veritable conveyor belt of tennis talent – think Anisimova. The 18 year-old has quietly built herself a confident start to her professional career. She reached the second round of all three slams this year, displaying a consistency beyond her years. A former World Number One Junior, Potapova was always fated for bigger things. She won the 2016 Wimbledon Girl’s Championship, beating the talented Dayana Yastremska in the process. She reached two finals last year, including the Tashkent Open. She reached the semi-finals in Hungary this season and just recently broke into the top 70 of the World Rankings. She is a fearsome talent who looks set for a stellar career. It is in events such as these that she needs to really dominate.
This will unsurprisingly be their first ever meeting. Potapova is in better form, with a year-to-date win-loss record of 14-13. Korpatsch has a year-to-date win-loss record of 7-9. Potapova is most certainly the more ascendant player. However, Korpatsch’s ITF record on clay gives me enough reason to opt for an upset victory at 11/4.
Written by Damien Kayat for Hollywoodbets
