The final is set at the WTA Monastir Open. Alize Cornet, seeded third this week in Tunisia, knocked off second seed Veronika Kudermetova in straight sets to reach her first final of 2022. Mertens is the #5 seed and had a little smoother road to the final, without having to face a seed all tournament. Two of the best players in the draw have reached the final and will fight to be the first ever champion in Monastir.
WTA Monastir Final Prediction
Alize Cornet vs Elise Mertens
Head-to-head: Cornet 2-2 Mertens
Cornet and Mertens are meeting for the fifth time and second this year, though this is the first time they will play for a trophy. The match up is almost as even as it can get. Both players have six career titles, have split their previous meetings, are separated by just five places in their world ranking, and have almost identical win percentages (53/52%) in 2022. Mertens won their most recent meeting earlier this year on hard court in St. Petersburg in three close sets.
Cornet is looking to build on a strong grass court season to continue her momentum to end the year. Mertens has not been her best self the last few months and hopes to get a title to be back on track. Mertens will try to attack Cornet with her power and big serve. Cornet should have the movement advantage so will try and create longer points, with the Frenchwoman will surely be hoping her shotmaking abilities can throw Mertens off-balance and neutralize her power.
Cornet will be encouraged to do so based on her form so far this week. She has won all eight sets she has played in a fairly difficult draw. Her return has been excellent, scoring 18 breaks of serve in her four matches. Mertens does have a strong serve, but she has been broken 11 times in her four matches, and she has dropped two sets, both against qualifiers. The WTA tends to be unpredictable so looking at form will be key. Cornet looks far sharper than Mertens this week and she will continue that and win a hard battle to hoist her seventh title.
Prediction: Cornet in 3
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