Day six at WTA Rome promises to be an interesting day. There are matchups involving plenty of big hitters as well as players who play with more guile and court craft. As always, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match on the slate, including Alexandra Eala vs Elena Rybakina. But who will secure their spot in the last 16?<\/p>\n
WTA Rome Day 6 Predictions
\nElina Svitolina vs Hailey Baptiste<\/p>\n
Head-to-head: Svitolina 1-1 Baptiste<\/p>\n
Hailey Baptiste is in some of the best clay-court form of her life following an impressive run in Madrid, where she reached the semifinals. Elina Svitolina had quite a contrasting outing in Madrid, losing in her first match in rather tame fashion. The head-to-head is tied, but Svitolina won their only meeting on clay, which coincidentally was a year ago at this same event.<\/p>\n
This surface suits the Ukrainian better, as she has the patience and resilience to play drawn-out points, as well as an excellent record at WTA Rome. The hard-hitting, highly aggressive Baptiste will look to move Svitolina around. Still, the Ukrainian remains one of the most defensively astute players on tour and should bait her into more and more errors as the match progresses. This is probably the tournament that Svitolina gets up and running<\/p>\n
Prediction: Svitolina in 3<\/p>\n
Jessica Pegula vs Rebecca Masarova<\/p>\n
Head-to-head: first meeting<\/p>\n
By her usual standards, Jessica Pegula had a rather underwhelming outing in Madrid and will be looking to course-correct here. She is one of those players who you feel the clay of Madrid should suit nicely. She comes up against the qualifier Masarova in what feels like an easy match-up for her. The Swiss player had a good win over Leylah Fernandez in her last match, but this takes things up several notches. Pegula enjoyed a nice, comfortable win in her first match here, and there\u2019s no reason to believe that will not continue here. Expect the American to take control of this match from the get-go and progress to the next round at WTA Rome.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Pegula in 2<\/p>\n
Naomi Osaka vs Diana Shnaider<\/p>\n
Head-to-head: first meeting<\/p>\n