{"id":485451,"date":"2026-02-23T09:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T09:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/485451\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T09:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T09:38:09","slug":"wta-austin-day-1-predictions-including-volynets-vs-bartunkova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/485451\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Austin Day 1 Predictions Including Volynets vs Bartunkova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Main draw action in the WTA 250 in Austin, Texas, kicks off with six matches. Some of the home favorites will be in action with former semifinalist Katie Voylnets drawing Nikola Bartunkova in the opening round. Who will reach the next round?<\/p>\n<p>WTA Austin Day 1 Predictions<br \/>\nAlycia Parks vs Oksana Selekhmeteva<\/p>\n<p>Head-to-head: Parks 1-0 Selekhmeteva<\/p>\n<p>Just three spots separate <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/08\/22\/alycia-parks-wta-semifinal-in-monterrey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Alycia Parks<\/a> from Oksana Selekhmeteva in the Top 80 of the WTA rankings. Parks\u2019 previous two main draw appearances in Austin resulted in first-round exits, while Selekhmeteva fell in qualifying in her only trip last year. The Russian has played superbly on hard courts this season, with her third-round finish at the Australian Open ranking as one of her career highlights. That said, if Parks brings a steadier serving performance, she should dictate this match.<br \/>Prediction: Parks in 2<\/p>\n<p>Anna Bondar vs Kamilla Rakhimova<\/p>\n<p>Head-to-head: first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Kamilla Rakhimova is still chasing her first main draw win of the season. Her doubles success earlier this month has masked her singles record (title winner in Cluj-Napoca). Anna Bondar has not won in Austin before and has lost three of her last four matches. The Hungarian\u2019s heavy top spin and disciplined depth shine on slower surfaces, although she is still capable of playing well on hard courts. Rakhimova is the more natural ball striker on this surface and her competitiveness has not wavered despite her winless run in the main draws.<br \/>Prediction: Rakhimova in 3<\/p>\n<p>Katie Volynets vs Nikola Bartunkova<\/p>\n<p>Head-to-head: first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Nikola Bartunkova enters this tournament in solid rhythm. She\u2019s won nine of her last 12 matches, including five at the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/australian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Australian Open<\/a> from qualifying. Bartunkova had to qualify for the main draw in Austin and did so emphatically without dropping a set. Katie Volynets has home advantage, but the American\u2019s defensive resilience has been missing in recent weeks.<br \/>Prediction: Bartunkova in 3<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Main draw action in the WTA 250 in Austin, Texas, kicks off with six matches. Some of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[9971,9972,66326,66327,135218,135219,94530,202801,99,428,9985,9986,223228],"class_list":{"0":"post-485451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-anna-bondar","9":"tag-anna-bondar-predictions","10":"tag-kamilla-rakhimova","11":"tag-kamilla-rakhimova-predictions","12":"tag-katie-volynets","13":"tag-katie-volynets-predictions","14":"tag-nikola-bartunkova","15":"tag-nikola-bartunkova-predictions","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tennis","18":"tag-tennis-picks","19":"tag-tennis-predictions","20":"tag-wta-austin-predictions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}