Damien Kayat previews the Ro16 matches between Caroline Garvia and Martina Trevisan as well as Jasmin Paolini and Tamara Korspatch from the 2022 Lyon Open.
2022 WTA Tour
WTA International
Lyon Open
Palais des Sports Gerland (Hard Indoors)
Selected Round of 16 Matches- 3rd March
Caroline Garcia 39/100 | Martina Trevisan 39/100
28-year-old Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia has struggled to replicate the form that saw her climb as high as number 4 in the world rankings in late 2018. In 2017 she became the only woman to win the Wuhan and China Open in the same year.
She is a powerful server with the ability to trade baseline rallies with the very best. But she is often let down by physical wear and tear. This proved to be the case in Qatar last week.
She defied the odds with an amazing victory over in-form Simona Halep. And she was well in the match against Coco Gauff before muscle discomfort derailed her chances. And now she is fresh off a three-set victory against top seed Camila Giorgi.
She fought back from a set down and absolutely dominated the Italian in the final set. Incredibly, the usually strong serving Giorgi could only win two points on serve in the decider. Next up for Garcia is another Italian: Martina Trevisan.
A promising junior, Martina Trevisan just hasn’t been able to reach the heights expected of her at tour level. It’s not a secret that the 28-year-old Italian is a clay-court aficionado.
Of her 18 ITF Finals, 17 of them have come on clay. Interestingly, her last ITF final came on hardcourts in November. She actually reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2020.
This week should represent a chance for Trevisan to register some tour-level wins. She is coming off a solid victory over former doubles partner Elisabetta Cocciaretto. She is an aggressive baseliner who is held back somewhat by her lack of mobility. This is why she is better suited to the slower cay surfaces.
Verdict: Garcia to win in straight sets at 94/100
Caroline Garcia has won their only previous encounter in straight sets on the Dubai hardcourts last year. This is just purely a case of ‘horses for courses’.
Despite her erratic nature, Garcia is an accomplished hardcourt player who is able to take advantage of the quicker conditions with flat groundstrokes.
She should dominate on serve and I expect her double-handed backhand to be a huge weapon in this match. She is also obviously playing in front of her home crowd this week.
Jasmine Paolini 29/100 | Tamara Korspatch 51/20
Despite being seeded for this year’s event, 26-year-old Italian Jasmine Paolini has really enjoyed an awful start to the season. She is yet to advance beyond the 2nd round at any tournament this year.
In fact, she only has two main draw wins to her name this year. Paolini is coming off a solid season that saw her win her maiden WTA title at the Slovenia Open (that event did take place on outside hardcourts).
But she just can’t seem to maintain a high level at present. She actually pushed the venerated Elise Mertens to three sets last week in Qatar. But she was unable to close out the match in the 3rd set despite being up a double-break.
A nine-time winner on the ITF Tour, 26-year-old German Tamara Korspatch actually has an indoor hardcourt final appearance to her name. Korspatch is competing in her first WTA event of the season after clawing her way through qualifying this week.
This included Blinkova’s Q1 withdrawal. Prior to this week’s event, the German clay-court specialist had barely played any tennis in 2022. She was eliminated in the early stages of two ITF events and she is hardly in pristine form.
But she pulled off something of a surprise victory against 91st ranked Oceane Dodin (Korspatch was ranked 179 in the WTA rankings going into this event). This was very surprising given Odin’s supposed superiority on harder surfaces.
Verdict: Korspatch to win at 51/20
I’m pretty sure that this is the first time that these two will have met. Korspatch is a gritty clay-court player who attempts to grind down her opponents.
She could actually have success against Paolini this week. The Italian tends to be over-aggressive and can lose consecutive games in a hurry.
Korspatch will be mindful of this and will look to frustrate the Italian into error (much like Mertens last week). I can’t bring myself to back Paolini at 29/100 considering her form.
