It was a great quarterfinals lineup at the WTA Athens Open, and the semifinals are no different. Two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova will face the top seed, Clara Tauson and home hope Maria Sakkari will battle 19-year-old Alina Korneeva. As always, we at LWOT will offer predictions for both matches, but which players will advance to the finals?
WTA Athens Semifinal Predictions
Maria Sakkari vs Alina Korneeva
Head-to-Head: first meeting
#4 seed Maria Sakkari is playing some great tennis this week on her home soil, and she is through to the semifinals without dropping a set. More than her tennis, it seems like she is having so much fun out on the court, which is a great sign. 19-year-old Alina Korneeva is also having a great week as she is into her second tour-level semifinal. Her clean ball striking was on full display against Tereza Valentova in the quarterfinals. However, her serve is not that strong, and to win against Sakkari, she will need her serve to make an impact. I expect one or two close sets in this, but Sakkari should win in the end.
Prediction: Sakkari in 3
Barbora Krejcikova vs Clara Tauson
Head-to-Head: Krejcikova 1-1 Tauson
Barbora Krejcikova continues her fine run of form as she defeated Qinwen Zheng in straight sets in the quarterfinals. It was not a great quality match from the Czech player, but she did enough to win. Krejcikova won just 28% of her second serve points and will need to do a better job behind it in the semifinals. Clara Tauson is a streaky player, and this week she is playing superbly. She can hit winners from anywhere, and Krejcikova has seen that happen in their last meeting. However, Krejcikova is in much better form overall and has the variety to extract errors from Tauson.
Prediction: Krejcikova in 3
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
