The competition is getting tough and tight at the Nurnberg Cup. Thursday saw all of the four quarterfinal matches go the distance. #1 seed Yulia Putintseva and #2 seed Katerina Siniakova were each given hard times before they finally saw off Anna-Lena Friedsam and Madison Brengle, respectively. Some players don’t respond well in a Slam to playing too much competitive tennis immediately before it. Not the two top seeds here. They are playing with hunger and desire, and seem to want to go into Roland Garros with a title in the bag. Siniakova is underachieving, only having won two WTA titles in her career; she will be focused on trying to put that right in Nurnberg.
There was no consolation for the German crowd, who witnessed the quarterfinal defeat of their only representative, Anna-Lena Friedsam. In the doubles quarterfinals, Friedsam teamed up with Mona Barthel, but they failed to secure a semifinal spot as well. They were defeated by Sabrina Santamaria (USA) and Alexa Guarachi (CHI) in three sets 6-1 2-6 (8-10).
Here are our predictions for the two singles semifinal matches.
WTA Nurnberg Semifinal Predictions
Katerina Siniakova vs Tamara Zidanšek
No history
There is a case to argue that as Siniakova is on top of the world in the doubles, she has been distracted in the singles. She will be keen to re-bolster her singles reputation and a clay title would further that cause, nicely.
A tough match is likely and Siniakova will need to focus in the long points to grind down Tamara Zidanšek. The Slovenian World #68 recovered well from a break down in the third set against Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova in the last round, winning 6-4 2-6 6-3. Zidanšek will be tough to break down, but Siniakova, on her day, is more than capable of doing so.
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Siniakova is still lacking in confidence and is making harder work of winning than she ought to, at times, during her matches. She is still the one to beat in Nurnberg, arguably.
Prediction: Siniakova in 2
Yulia Putintseva vs Sorana Cirstea
Head-to-head: Cirstea 2-1 Putintseva
It took a final set tie-break for Yulia Putintseva to secure her semifinal spot. She is being made to work hard as the top seed. World #93 Romania’s Sorana Cirstea sits 54 places behind her Kazakhstani opponent in the world rankings. That said, Cirstea holds the head-to-head edge, but it is 1-1 on clay meetings. Putintseva won the last meeting in Istanbul 2018, but it was here in Nurnberg that Cirstea put Putintseva to the sword in 2017. Both of the clay encounters went the distance, as do a lot of Cirstea’s matches in general–at least of late, anyway.
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Cirstea has grit and an ultra-competitive edge that means she is comfortable in longer matches. This, in essence, could be the key factor in this closely matched encounter.
Prediction: Cirstea in 3
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