Mona Barthel vs. Andrea Petkovic
Angelique Kerber vs. Melanie Oudin
Jana Cepelova vs. Magdalena Rybarikova
Paula Ormaechea vs. Olga Puchkova
Carlsbad schedule:
Laura Robson vs. Petra Kvitova
Dominika Cibulkova vs. Ana Ivanovic
Victoria Azarenka vs. Francesca Schiavone
Samantha Stosur vs. Sesil Karatantcheva
Roberta Vinci vs. Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Match focus:
Mona Barthel vs. Andrea Petkovic
Mona Barthel is crazily inconsistent as evidenced by her loss to someone ranked outside the top 300 in Bad Gastein. Andrea Petkovic seems to be more consistent but is finding difficulty finding back her top 10 form. A lot is at stake here, points and a chance to prove who is the better German. Petkovic will have the upper hand as the more experienced German, but if Mona hits her stride, she's almost untouchable. Andrea will need to grind hard for the win.
Pick: Petkovic in 3 sets
Laura Robson vs. Petra Kvitova
Another crazy player that can be on and off on any given day, Kvitova will be tested against Robson in her opening match here. Robson beat the shaky Czech in Melbourne and will be confident to repeat that feat again. Kvitova has just been losing to players she's supposed to be routing, and bullshitting her way to the latter stages of her tournaments. Let's see how far she can go with her bad form this time.
Pick: Robson in 3 sets
Dominika Cibulkova vs. Ana Ivanovic
Ivanovic will face an uphill task against Cibulkova, someone who she has never beaten and a new champion in Stanford. The speedy Slovak isn't afraid of running the whole day retrieving Ana's forehand bombs, and giving back some of her own. Also, Cibulkova's simple tactic of hitting flat shots to Ana's backhand has worked everytime, so I expect more of of the same this time. Cibulkova isn't too far from Ana in terms of ranking, but this will be considered an upset.
Pick: Cibulkova in 2 sets
Sure win bets: Angelique Kerber, Samantha Stosur, Victoria Azarenka
Upset alert: Mona Barthel, Ana Ivanovic, Petra Kvitova
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