The quality of tennis at WTA Sydney International 2019 has not been spectacular, but it has not been disappointing. As things stand, Petra Kvitova looks like the woman to beat for the coveted title. The Czech won a blockbuster affair against the defending Sydney champion Angelique Kerber to move into the semifinals, where she will play Aliaksandra Sasnovich. With that win, the Czech has now leads Kerber on head-to-head 7-6.
Meanwhile, home favorite Ashleigh Barty is looking to make the finals in Sydney for the second consecutive year. She will play Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands in the first semifinal of the day.
Ashleigh Barty vs Kiki Bertens
Ashleigh Barty backed up her win over Simona Halep with another solid performance against the 10th seeded Belgian Elise Mertens. Barty is on a roll at the moment and she will take some stopping. Bertens lost to the Australian in Montreal last year in their only previous meeting. Bertens has also impressed during these two weeks in Australia, but she is playing a crowd favorite. This is too close to call. However, considering that Barty is last year’s runner-up in Sydney and the good form she is in, she is a slight favorite to win this duel.
Prediction: Barty in 2
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Petra Kvitova vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich
Petra Kvitova played very well in her win over Kerber. She was a point away from going a double-break down in the first set, but managed to turn it around and never looked back. Her semifinal opponent Aliaksandra Sasnovich has pretty much exceeded expectations, but if we were to use the word giant killer, then it would fit the Belorussian perfectly. Sasnovich has five Top 10 career wins, including two this year. She beat Svitolina last week in Brisbane and Daria Kasatkina this week in Sydney. Kvitova will also need no reminding of the last time she faced Sasnovich. I was surprised at how much variety Sasnovich has added to her game. There was one long game in that first set against Bacsinszky when she hit a drop shot almost every time and it came off. The courts in Sydney are playing fast this year and what I like about this match-up is that both these players are aggressive from the baseline. So we will see quite a handful of winners. Sasnovich has gone through qualifying this week to get this far, so she has more matches under her belt. However, I do not think she will be fatigued or anything. In fact that could be have a positive influence in her game. The Belorussian is massive underdog here, but she is quite capable of causing an upset as she did in their last meeting at Wimbledon last year.
Prediction: Sasnovich in 3
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