The Internazionali BNL d’Italia tennis tournament continues with first-round action from Rome on Tuesday and so do our tennis picks. Meanwhile, the second round begins for some of the seeded players who had first-round byes.
On Monday, we saw mostly expected results as the majority of the favorites slid through as expected. That included Venus Williams, who had a challenging matchup against Coco Vandeweghe, but Venus ended up winning in straight sets. We also saw players like Madison Keys, Ana Ivanovic, Barbora Strycova, Daria Kasaktina and Heather Watson move on. There weren’t many notable upsets, but Margarita Gasparyan did stumble against Irina Camelia Begu. Karolina Pliskova also didn’t put up much of a fight, losing in straight sets to Kasaktina. Also, we won’t see Francesca Schiavone – a hometown hero – any more in this tournament as she was dropped by Lice Safarova in straight sets.
It’s on to Tuesday with our tennis picks. This is the final tournament of consequence before the French Open, the last chance for players to accumulate significant quantities of rankings points in the attempt to influence their French Open seedings and improve their prospects in Paris.
Carla Suarez-Navarro vs. Teliana Pereira
This is a second-round match. Suarez-Navarro has been a solid clay-court player this year. She didn’t go as far as she would have liked to in Madrid, but she was not 100-percent healthy and lost steam as the tournament continued. Samantha Stosur knocked her out. Suarez-Navarro probably won’t make the deep run she made in Rome last year, when she got to the final. However, Pereira struggled in some of the clay warm-up tournaments (including in her native South America – she’s from Brazil) before these more prestigious events in Madrid and Rome. She is not a player who inspires confidence against a seasoned veteran such as Suarez-Navarro, whose backhand should be able to do a lot of damage in this match. This is not a verdict on Suarez-Navarro being great; it’s more a betting choice which says that Pereira is not ready or good enough to take advantage of this situation against a player who isn’t in peak shape. Suarez-Navarro is the better choice for your tennis picks in this situation.
Pick: Suarez-Navarro in straight sets
Serena Williams vs. Anna-Lena Friedsam
This is a second-round matchup of players who met at the French Open last year, also in the second round. Friedsam took the first set against Serena, who was flat and very disorganized early in the match. That actually could become the same scenario for this match. Serena hasn’t played in several weeks, and she hasn’t had a chance to play at all on red clay this spring due to a combination of injury issues and illnesses. She had the flu, which caused her to miss Madrid the week before. Serena’s going to be very rusty, and that sort of issue could cost her a set. Yet, Friedsam isn’t a dangerous-enough player to be able to take the match out of Serena’s hands entirely. This will be a three-setter, but Serena will win it in the end, so take her with your tennis picks in this one.
Pick: Serena in three sets
Yanina Wickmayer vs. Timea Bacsinszky
This is a first-round match. Bacsinszky has played a lot of tennis over the past few weeks, and she’s been a regular visit to the trainer’s room, getting taped up and padded in all sorts of places. She ran out of gas last week in Madrid against Simona Halep, who beat her in the round of 16. That loss wasn’t fun for Bacsinszky in that she had beaten Halep earlier in the season in Miami, but as far as Rome is concerned, losing before the quarterfinals in Madrid should give Bacsinszky a chance to refresh and regroup. She should be in reasonably good health for this match, and that will probably make the difference against Wickmayer, a player whose career has never taken off after making the U.S. Open semifinals several years ago. Take Bacsinszky with your tennis picks in this spot.
Pick: Bacsinszky in straight sets
