Friday at the WTA 500 in San Diego will see the two semifinal matches of the tournament, with only one seeded player left in the draw. It’s still a pretty nice remaining field, with a former Slam champion and a finalist. All four players will be aiming to win a title the week right after the US Open and will be doing their absolute best to claim the trophy on Sunday. Both semifinals should be extremely tight and are very hard to predict, even more so because both will be first time matchups.
WTA San Diego Semifinal Predictions
Sofia Kenin vs Emma Navarro
Head-to-head: first meeting
The two players are at very different stages in their careers: Kenin peaked when she made the Roland Garros final and then won the US Open in the end of 2020 and has really declined since. She’s looking to get back to her previous level, while Navarro is young and up-and-coming, looking for her first career WTA level title here. Both players have had excellent campaigns this year, with Navarro’s final set tiebreak win over Maria Sakkari perhaps the most memorable moment of the tournament so far. There’s very little to choose between the two players, but perhaps you would give the young challenger a slight edge.
Prediction: Navarro in 3
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Barbora Krejcikova vs Danielle Collins
Head-to-head: first meeting
Both players reached a Slam final somewhat recently, with Krejcikova even winning Roland Garros 2021, but haven’t really kicked on since. While Krejcikova is still ranked relatively high, Collins is outside the Top 40 and struggling to win consistently. This is a huge opportunity for both players to win a title this week and both have played pretty well so far. Collins’s run has been particuarly impressive, overcoming Ostapenko and Caroline Garcia on her way to reaching this semfinal. She has the slight edge going into this one, even if it should go down to the wire.
Prediction: Collins in 3
Main Photo Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
