The opening round singles matches at the 2019 WTA finals have been tightly-contested, dramatic, and high-quality affairs, with three of the four matches going three sets. In the Red Group, the top seeds both prevailed on Sunday, setting up a marquee match-up today between two of the world’s top three players. In Tuesday’s other singles match, Petra Kvitova and Belinda Bencic will fight to stay out of last place.
Ash Barty (1) vs. Naomi Osaka (3)
These two just met in the final of Beijing a few weeks ago, with Osaka prevailing in three. They split their other two previous meetings, both of which were in 2018, though Osaka has claimed both of their matches on hard courts. And after going 0-3 last year in her WTA Finals debut, Osaka was impressive in coming back from a set down on Sunday against a game Petra Kvitova. Naomi is yet to lose a match in Asia since the US Open. She’s on an 11-match winning streak, with titles in both Osaka and Beijing. While Barty has already guaranteed herself the end-of-year No.1 ranking with her win on Sunday, she will not be the favourite against the in-form two-time Major champion today.
Petra Kvitova (6) vs. Belinda Bencic (8)
This is the fourth time these two players have faced off this year. Kvitova was victorious in straight sets at both the Australian Open and in Beijing, but Bencic was the winner in the final of Dubai, which was the biggest title win of the 22-year-old’s career. However, that’s the only time Bencic has ever won a set against Kvitova, as Petra’s claimed their other four career encounters in straights. And Kvitova is certainly the more experienced player at this event. This is her seventh trip to the WTA Finals. Petra has advanced beyond the round robin stage three out of six times, and was the champion in her debut in 2011. This year is Bencic’s debut at this event, as she qualified in the last week of the WTA regular season with her title run in Moscow. While Belinda certainly has plenty of confidence, we saw in her loss to Barty on Sunday how her emotions can get the better of her. And even though Kvitova’s best tennis came during the first half of this year, she should be favored to defeat Bencic based on their history.
