WTA Rome Wednesday Preview

Victoria Azarenka vs. Sara Errani

Azarenka, a finalist last week in Madrid, opens her quest for the Rome title with a second round match over a home crowd favorite. Victoria Azarenka has enjoyed a lot of recent success and as a result she has climbed up to world number four in the WTA's rankings. She'll open her campaign for a Premier Mandatory title in Rome on Wednesday as she faces Italy's Sara Errani.

Errani and Azarenka have a short history against one another as they have played four times. In those matches Azarenka is a solid 3-1 having won their most recent match, on clay, at WTA Marbella 2011 6-2, 6-1. Where Azarenka has not won a tournament outright it has often taken a very talented player to knock her out of the draw. Azarenka has two titles this season and her most recent losses have come to the improved Petra Kvitova, the improving Julia Goerges, and world number one Caroline Wozniacki. Players ranked as poorly as Errani, currently ranked 39th, are not normally able to stay on court with Azarenka, but we will see.

Caroline Wozniacki vs. Anastasia Radionova

Wozniacki and Radionova will meet for the first time in their careers on Wednesday from the Premier Mandatory event in Rome (Internazionali BNL D'Itali). Caroline Wozniacki is favorite to win her second round match at WTA Rome as the world number one has drawn Anastasia Radionova of Australia.

Radionova and Wozniacki have never met in a tour match however the Australian entered this week ranked just 80th in the world and she looks like easy pickings for the top ranked Dane. Prior to Rome the best player that Radionova had beaten this season was Zuzana Ondraskova, ranked 83rd at the time of their match, and the Aussie looks as though she is going to be out of the top 100 soon.

Recently Radionova has been playing at a level of tennis far inferior to what she was playing at at about this time last season as the 2010 French Open brought a victory over Vera Zvonareva and Wimbledon 2010 brought a victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Wozniacki has enjoyed stronger stretches of tennis herself as she's been knocked out of two tournaments in a row by Julia Goerges of Germany. However you have to go back to the 2009 Australian Open to find a time when Wozniacki lost a match to someone ranked 80th or worse as Jelena Dokic defeated the Dane in the round of 32 in Melbourne that year while ranked 187^th. Wozniacki should see herself past Radionova and into the third round where she will face the winner between Yanina Wickmayer and Ana Ivanovic.