{"id":15551,"date":"2019-06-04T16:10:46","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T20:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=15551"},"modified":"2019-06-04T16:10:46","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T20:10:46","slug":"french-open-semifinal-predictions-johanna-konta-marketa-vondrousova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/06\/04\/french-open-semifinal-predictions-johanna-konta-marketa-vondrousova\/","title":{"rendered":"French Open Women&#8217;s Semifinal Predictions: Johanna Konta vs Marketa Vondrousova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first of Thursday&#8217;s two women&#8217;s semifinals are set at the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/french-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">French Open<\/a>. We will see a battle between two players who have never reached a Major final before. Well, one of Johanna Konta or Marketva Vondrousova will change that. Who will it be? Will the Brit reach her first Major final? Or will the teenage phenom continue her sensational run? Let&#8217;s find out. Predicting this match for you today are myself (Yesh Ginsburg), Jim Smith, Eric Han, Nurein Ahmed, and Tracey Essex<\/p>\n<h2>French Open Women&#8217;s Semifinal: Johanna Konta vs Marketa Vondrousova<\/h2>\n<p><em>Jim:<\/em><br \/>\nFew could have predicted either Konta or Vondrousova reaching the semifinals, but it can hardly be argued they don\u2019t deserve their places. Konta has dropped just one set, and in the quarterfinal blitzed last year\u2019s finalist Sloane Stephens 6-1 6-4. Vondrousova, meanwhile, hasn\u2019t even ceded one set yet. But expect that to change against Konta. The Briton has been serving magnificently and spreading the court magnificently off the ground. It should be close, but Konta\u2019s experience and ability to absorb pace should just give her the edge.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Konta in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Eric:<\/em><br \/>\nKonta beat Vondrousova a few weeks ago in Rome. However, Vondrousova was forced to play two matches in one day, so was not physically peak for that match. Both ladies&#8217; are playing extremely well, and Vondrousova is yet to drop a set throughout the tournament. Looking back at the Rome match, Vondrousova pushed Konta to three sets before running out of gas. I think now Vondrousova is fresh and ready, she can win this match.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Vondrousova in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"0kZvdxVlTEdkyZ2MDNpoCA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1153714511\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'0kZvdxVlTEdkyZ2MDNpoCA',sig:'Elc8ISkx6T2xVWJMkmlEcFxlKRQUCBCkuciEpxEbLdA=',w:'594px',h:'406px',items:'1153714511',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Tracey:<\/em><br \/>\nA semifinal battle has aligned between two players perhaps no one expected to reach this stage. Johanna Konta and Marketa Vondrousova have truly earned their place, playing some of best tennis of their respective careers. In Konta\u2019s quarterfinal match against American Sloane Stephens, she yielded just five games. It seems the Brit has reached a point of invincibility. Marketa Vondrousova turned in a stellar performance against Croatia\u2019s Petra Martic. For the first time, the Czech was able to beat her four time victor, leading to her maiden French Open semifinal. Nerves were almost her undoing. And, against Johanna Konta, she simply cannot afford that teenage angst. It\u2019s near impossible to think Vondrousova can keep the nerves at bay, especially against the strong and consistent Konta. And, that\u2019s all the Brit will need to secure the win.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Konta in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Nurein:<\/em><br \/>\nMarketa Vondrousova is certainly one to keep an eye on. She is only 19 but she has been on a meteoric rise for the last couple of seasons. She won her first tour title at 17, and this year she scored two wins over Simona Halep&#8211;including one on clay in Rom&#8211;and then reached two WTA finals. Johanna Konta, on the other hand, has enjoyed an extraordinary run to the semifinals, playing some inspired tennis. Nobody saw this form coming from Konta especially when you consider <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/05\/25\/five-wta-players-improve-french-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">she had never made it past the first round at Roland Garros<\/a> in her previous visits. I fancy the Brit to progress in this one. Vondrousova is playing in her maiden Grand Slam semifinal and will be overwhelmed by the occasion, and that is where Konta will come into full effect.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Konta in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Yesh:<\/em><br \/>\nKonta dominated an out-of-sorts Sloane Stephens in their semifinal, while Vondrousova blasted past an also out-of-sorts Petra Martic. The teenager has more power, but Konta has a better all-around game. The Brit can absorb power well and frustrate her opponents with it. And while neither has been in a Grand Slam final before, Konta has far more experience on the bigger stages. We saw Vondrousova get very tight with her quarterfinal match on the line. Expect Konta to handle the pressure situations much better, which will be huge in this match.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Konta in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"fRkeYUhRQy1EqrQOvJJnsg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1153695437\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'fRkeYUhRQy1EqrQOvJJnsg',sig:'eMBjLI6oVXm-2pwOrIqe-30P43PmgQzE7D4J1WhbrE0=',w:'594px',h:'415px',items:'1153695437',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first of Thursday&#8217;s two women&#8217;s semifinals are set at the French Open. We will see a battle between two players who have never reached a Major final before. Well, one of Johanna Konta or Marketva Vondrousova will change that. Who will it be? Will the Brit reach her first Major final? Or will the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1601,"featured_media":15570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,69,4],"tags":[3150,6401,6406,60,6407,6371,6411,884,6409,6410,2373,2369,6412],"class_list":["post-15551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-french-open","category-predictions","category-wta","tag-french-open-semifinal","tag-french-open-semifinal-predictions","tag-french-open-womens-semifinal","tag-johanna-konta","tag-johanna-konta-french-open","tag-konta-french-open","tag-konta-prediction","tag-marketa-vondrousova","tag-marketa-vondrousova-french-open","tag-marketa-vondrousova-roland-garros","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-vondrousova-prediction"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1601"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}