Lucia Bronzetti vs Caroline Garcia Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Palermo Open

Prediction published on 21/07/2022, 17:53  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 22/07/2022 at 07:52 in Tennis Predictions

Fifth seeded Caroline Garcia takes on unseeded Lucia Bronzetti for a place in the last four of the Palermo clay court tournament. Garcia began this week ranked 48th but is up three places in the live rankings. The French player was as high as fourth in the rankings in 2018. This year has seen her win one title and that was on grass last month. Garcia then went on to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon but has had success since returning to clay. Last week saw Garcia get to the last four in Lausanne. This week got off to a difficult start as she had to come from behind to defeat Chloe Paquet in the first round. It wasn't easy in the second round either as she lost the first set to Elisabetta Cocciaretto without winning a game. Garcia fought back to take the next two sets for the loss of seven games.

Lucia Bronzetti is one of two Italian players left in this tournament. If she wins, it could be an all-Italian semi-final against Jasmine Paolini if she can get past eighth seeded Nuno Parrizas Dias. Bronzetti was ranked 78th at the start of this tournament. This run to the last eight has seen her live ranking rise to 76th. The Italian also reached the quarter finals in Palermo last year but lost to Elena-Gabriela Ruse. She'd lost three successive matches before this tournament, including her first match in Lausanne last week. Earlier this year, Bronzetti won an ITF clay court event held in Switzerland but didn't beat anyone ranked in the top 200. Better form was when reaching the last four in a WTA event in Morocco in May. This week has seen her beat Xiyu Wang and qualifier Elina Avanesyan without dropping a set. This is tougher and Garcia is the tip to win.