The U.S. Open moves into the other half of the women’s draw and that’s where we’ll continue our tennis picks. On Wednesday, we had a decent day but we failed to sweep the board. We went 2-1 with our tennis picks as one mild upset threw us off. We had Svetlana Kuznetsova to beat Caroline Wozniacki, but the latter managed to get by in straight sets. The good news is we ended up wining our two other tennis picks. We had Belinda Bencic to get by Andrea Petkovic and she had no problem doing that. We also had Angelique Kerber to beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and she also had no issues with that, moving on in straight sets.
Looking ahead to Thursday, a lot of players are likely to have career-best chances to make quarterfinals or semifinals, given all the opportunities which exist in New York. Players are playing long matches and are getting immersed in the heat and humidity of the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows. This feels like a fragile tournament, and so one shouldn’t expect all the higher seeds to cruise. Someone could be an unexpected breakthrough artist.
Simona Halep vs. Lucie Safarova
Halep comes to New York in good form, having won in Toronto and reaching the semifinals in Cincinnati. The Romanian made light work of Kirsten Flipkens, beating her easily in the first round. She landed 69 percent of the first serves and rushed to the net on 15 occasions, successfully winning 12 of them. Halep has a tough second round against Safarova, whom she leads 3-1 in the head-to-head battle. Safarova’s only win came at their first meeting in 2011 in Toronto. Two of the subsequent wins for Halep have gone the distance but they haven’t faced off for two years.
Safarova played a clean match to defeat dangerous first-round opponent Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 6-4. The Czech has a terrific ball-striking ability and a vicious serve, but she’ll want that to work against Halep, who was also a U.S. Open semifinalist last year. Safarova has the tools to oust the No. 5 seed, but it’s not 2015, when she was fully fit, riding on confidence and surprising her top rivals with her lethal groundstrokes. The Czech in her present form will do well to push Halep to the third set, but to pull off an upset seems a long shot. Take Halep with your tennis picks.
Prediction: Halep in straight sets
Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Jelena Jankovic
Jankovic leads the head-to-head series 5-3, but in their last meeting, Suarez Navarro demolished Jankovic 6-4, 6-2. Also, Jankovic is a horrendous 12-17 this season and is desperately searching for form. On the other hand, Suarez Navarro is 32-15 on the year and is experiencing a solid season. She reached her first hardcourt major quarterfinal in Australia and there is no reason why she can’t sail that far in the Big Apple. She’s the better choice for your tennis picks.
Prediction: Suarez Navarro in three sets
Venus Williams vs. Julia Georges
Venus Williams won her 18th first-round match at the U.S. Open in the most dramatic way. She now has the most Grand Slam appearances in the Open Era. The U.S. Open is the 72nd Grand Slam of her stellar career. Venus was cruising at one stage but appeared sloppy midway through the second set and unexpectedly lost the set, 5-7. Williams blew many leads but eventually scratched her way to beat Kateryna Kozlova 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in a duel which lasted close to three hours.
Next up for Williams is Julia Georges, who is ranked 64th in the world. The last time these two played each other, Williams won convincingly. Georges dismissed Yanina Wickmayer, a former semifinalist, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round but now faces a stern test in Williams. Georges burst onto the scene in Stuttgart in 2011, when she beat local favorite Sabine Lisicki, Victoria Azarenka, Samantha Stosur and Caroline Wozniacki and soared as high as 15th in the rankings. However, her consistently inconsistent game has seen her ranking drop off drastically.
Williams wasn’t sharp in the first round but said she hit a lot of balls and thinks that will benefit her moving forward. Expect her to roll over Georges.
Prediction: Williams in straight sets
