Veterans vs. Unknowns

When the Olympics is sandwiched between Wimbledon and US Open, you cannot blame the top players for skipping smaller events like these two. As a result, many new players have the chance to play in the main draw and some cheap points are up for grabs. This is the case with almost all the matches in these 2 tournaments featuring veterans vs. unknowns.

Palermo:

Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Anna Tatishvili
Katalin Marosi vs. Julia Goerges
Laura Robson vs. Roberta Vinci
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova vs. Julia Cohen

Stanford:

Dominika Cibulkova vs. Erika Sema
Sorana Cirstea vs. Zheng Saisai
Marina Erakovic vs. Urszula Radwanska
Marion Bartoli vs. Mallory Burdette

Match focus:

Laura Robson vs. Roberta Vinci

British future hope faces veteran Roberta Vinci in this 2nd round clash. No idea why Robson chose to commit here. Clay is easily her worst surface. She would be better off playing in Stanford. Vinci is a clay courter with a classical game. She should be able to get back a lot of balls and make Robson self-destruct.

Pick: Vinci in 2 sets

Marina Erakovic vs. Urszula Radwanska

Urszula had great results in the grass season but falter badly in the main event. Will she replicate her results on the American hard courts? Agnieszka's run to the finals must have made her even hungrier for success and not just be the little sister to Agnieszka. So I think she will put up a good fight against Marina. Whoever stays mentally stronger will win this match.

Pick: Radwanska in 3 sets

The rest of the match-ups involves some unknown player which I have never seen before. So I don't expect much difficulty for the veterans to take out the newbies. So I can't foresee any upsets happening today.