A few picks from the WTA French Open qualifying today, and honestly some tricky calls in here. Let's get into it.
WTA French Open Qualifying Predictions
Polina Kudermetova vs Anouk Koevermans
Head-to-head: Kudermetova 1-0 Koevermans
Kudermetova holds the ranking advantage and the H2H here, and at 125 in the world she's comfortably the better player on paper. Koevermans has been hovering around the 150s without much to show for it on clay and I don't see her doing much damage today.
That said, qualifying clay matches can go anywhere and Kudermetova isn't exactly setting the tour on fire right now either, so three sets feels likely before she closes it out.
Prediction: Kudermetova in 3
Nuria Brancaccio vs Kaitlin Quevedo
Head-to-head: First meeting
Quevedo comes in ranked 38 spots above Brancaccio and has been the more active player on tour recently, which matters in qualifying where rhythm and confidence carry a lot. Brancaccio is Italian and clay is her best surface, so she won't fold without a fight, but the ranking gap is real and Quevedo should have enough to get through here, all things considered.
Prediction: Quevedo in 3
Lulu Sun vs Yexin Ma
Head-to-head: Sun 1-1 Ma
This is the most interesting one of the three. Sun is ranked 72 spots above Ma and had that brilliant Wimbledon run, a tournament where her variety really shone, not long ago, but clay is a different conversation for her and Ma clearly knows how to beat her, with the head-to-head completely level. Sun's game is built around variety and flatter balls and on slower clay that tends to sit up nicely for an opponent willing to grind.
Ma at 183 in the world pulling off a straight-sets win here would be a genuine upset, but the H2H and surface make it more believable than the rankings suggest. We'll see how Sun handles it.
Prediction: Ma in 2
For full predictions on ATP and WTA matches today, check out Uppset.
Credit Image: © PI via ZUMA Press Wire