{"id":502838,"date":"2026-03-04T08:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/502838\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T08:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:16:07","slug":"wta-indian-wells-day-1-predictions-including-kessler-vs-sonmez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/502838\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Indian Wells Day 1 Predictions Including Kessler vs Sonmez"},"content":{"rendered":"

McCartney Kessler makes her return to competition after a month at the WTA Indian Wells. The opening day features a slate of first-round matches, which includes Kessler\u2019s meeting against Turkey\u2019s rising star Zeynep Sonmez. Who will advance? We also predict the rest of the day\u2019s matches in three separate articles, featuring Sloane Stephens vs Camila Osorio<\/a>, Bianca Andreescu vs Kamilla Rakhimova<\/a>, and Paula Badosa vs Yulia Putintseva<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WTA Indian Wells Day 1 Predictions
\nDayana Yastremska vs Zhang Shuai<\/p>\n

Head-to-head: Zhang 3-1 Yastremska<\/p>\n

With a lower win rate and losses piling up, this has been a very difficult start to 2026 for Dayana Yastremska. If she\u2019s searching for any positives, then she can look back at last year\u2019s run in this tournament\u2013she reached the third round. But the Indian Wells courts reward patience, and the Ukrainian favors early cuts at the ball. Zhang has a great chance to take advantage of this mini slump from her opponent, but she\u2019s coming off a long week in Merida.
Prediction: Yastremska in 2<\/p>\n

Ajla Tomljanovic vs Elena-Gabriela Ruse<\/p>\n

Head-to-head: Ruse 2-1 Tomljanovic<\/p>\n

Tomljanovic\u2019s last main draw win in this tournament was four years ago. The Australian brings a heavier ball and cleaner baseline patterns, but physical durability remains a massive issue. And on slower hard courts, Tomljanovic will need to move around the court a lot more. Ruse is a decent defender who is gritty, and she beat Tomljanovic back in Melbourne this season. Form-wise, Ruse has outperformed Tomljanovic, and the physical edge is still with the Romanian.
Prediction: Ruse in 3<\/p>\n

Kimberly Birrell vs Oksana Selekhmeteva<\/p>\n

Head-to-head: Kimberly 1-0 Selekhmeteva<\/p>\n

Selekhmeteva is a name that will feature regularly in these draws now that she has settled in the Top 100.\u00a0The Russian has been very consistent this season, qualifying into two main draws and registering one of her best wins at the Australian Open<\/a> when she beat Paula Badosa. Birrell won the pair\u2019s only meeting last year, but Selekhmeteva has made strides in her development and ranking (currently sits above Birrell).
Prediction: Selekhmeteva in 3<\/p>\n

McCartney Kessler vs Zeynep Sonmez<\/p>\n

Head-to-head: first meeting<\/p>\n

Kessler didn\u2019t have the best of starts to 2025, with a 4-4 record coming to Indian Wells. But three of those defeats have been against Top 20 players, including to World No. 5 Jessica Pegula. That said, she sits comfortably inside the Top 50 and made the quarterfinals in her most recent appearance in Abu Dhabi. But it\u2019s been a month since she was in action, and she withdrew from the rest of the Middle East swing because of a back injury. If it is serious, Sonmez\u2019s sharpness could offset Kessler\u2019s higher ranking and hard-court pedigree.
Prediction: Sonmez in 3<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Taya Gray\/The Desert Sun \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McCartney Kessler makes her return to competition after a month at the WTA Indian Wells. The opening day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[66315,66316,108318,108319,193788,193789,142863,142864,41522,193995,199424,199425,99,428,9985,9986,229137,108326,108327,104802,229138],"class_list":{"0":"post-502838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ajla-tomljanovic","9":"tag-ajla-tomljanovic-predictions","10":"tag-dayana-yastremska","11":"tag-dayana-yastremska-predictions","12":"tag-elena-gabriela-ruse","13":"tag-elena-gabriela-ruse-predictions","14":"tag-kimberly-birrell","15":"tag-kimberly-birrell-predictions","16":"tag-mccartney-kessler","17":"tag-mccartney-kessler-predictions","18":"tag-oksana-selekhmeteva","19":"tag-oksana-selekhmeteva-predictions","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-tennis","22":"tag-tennis-picks","23":"tag-tennis-predictions","24":"tag-wta-indian-wells-predictions","25":"tag-zeynep-sonmez","26":"tag-zeynep-sonmez-predictions","27":"tag-zhang-shuai","28":"tag-zhang-shuai-predictions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502838","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=502838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}