Diana Shnaider will take on Sorana Cirstea and McCartney Kessler faces Cristina Bucsa in second round action at the WTA Austin Open 2025 on Thursday, February 27. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Austin.
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Diana Shnaider v Sorana Cirstea Preview
Head-to-Head: There have been no previous meetings between Shnaider and Cirstea before this.
Sorana Cirstea stumbled badly in the middle of her first round match against Laura Siegemund but then recovered quickly enough to find a way past her opponent.
In the end, the shock quarterfinalist at the WTA Dubai defeated Siegemund 6-3, 0-6, 6-1 to reach the second round. And if you are wondering why have we mentioned the word shock here, it’s because of her performances all year and even in the previous season.
Cirstea had won just one match from four tournaments before her Dubai sparkle and that has meant she has slid to 120th in the world at the moment. And she now faces a world number 13.
Now, it’s not like Diana Shnaider has herself been in any good form. For a player aspiring to break into the top 10, Shnaider had a 5-5 win-loss record for the season and add that to the fact she was in dire straits in her opener here.
Shnaider was up against Tatiana Prozorova, a player ranked 175th in the world and was bagelled in the first set before scampering back into the match and winning a three-setter.
This could turn out to be a bit of a thriller by the looks of things.
Shnaider v Cirstea prediction: Three sets in the match: 6/5
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McCartney Kessler v Cristina Bucsa Preview
Head-to-Head: Kessler and Bucsa have never faced off before this.
McCartney Kessler continues to deliver the goods in her breakthrough season and this time around it was the turn of Viktorija Golubic to face the brunt.
In what turned out to be a quickfire win, Kessler overcame Golubic 6-2, 7-5 to sail into the second round where she will face Cristina Bucsa for the first time in her career.
This follows a title win in Hobart for Kessler and a more recent showing in Dubai that saw her shocked Amanda Anisimova and Cori Gauff in her first two matches.
She is a 2/5 favourite coming into this one against Bucsa who was made to come through the qualifiers and set up an opening round match against Bernarda Pera.
Bucsa prevented an all-American second round encounter by beating her opponent 6-3, 6-4, making it past her opener for the fourth time this season. And she has defeated some solid opponents in the form of Anna Kalinskaya, Emma Raducanu and Kamilla Rakhimova before this.
We could see Bucsa put up some fight here.
Kessler v Bucsa prediction: Kessler to win in three sets: 7/2
