Cristina Bucsa vs Jessica Pegula Prediction & Betting Tips - Japan Open

Prediction published on 25/09/2023, 11:20  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 26/09/2023 at 19:00

Third seeded Jessica Pegula begins her Toray Pan Pacific Open campaign against unseeded Cristina Bucsa.  Up next in Tokyo for the winner of this second round match could be sixth seeded Daria Kasatkina. The third seed is in the same half of the draw as top seeded Iga Swiatek. Pegula is fourth in the world rankings and the Live WTA Race. A couple of more wins are needed to confirm her place in the end-of-season Tour Finals. This is her first tournament since the US Open where the American lost in the last 16. Before that though, the 29-year-old won the Montreal hard court title and that included wins over Swiatek and Coco Gauff. A semi-final was also reached in Washington so she'll be confident of getting to at least that stage in this hard court tournament.

Cristina Bucsa is ranked 79th in the latest rankings list. Last month the Spaniard was as high as 65th and is up to 74th after her first round win. The 25-year-old made easy work of beating qualifier Rina Saigo and only dropped three games. Her Japanese opponent is ranked 400th so an emphatic win wasn't a surprise. Now it gets a lot tougher for Bucsa who had lost three of her last four matches before this tournament. A WTA 125 semi-final was reached last month but the highest ranked player beaten was in 92nd place. Her best recent win was defeating Belinda Bencic but we go for Pegula to win this in straight sets as was the case in their only previous meeting.