{"id":44893,"date":"2022-01-07T10:26:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T15:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=44893"},"modified":"2022-01-07T10:26:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T15:26:11","slug":"wta-adelaide-semifinal-predictions-including-ashleigh-barty-vs-iga-swiatek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2022\/01\/07\/wta-adelaide-semifinal-predictions-including-ashleigh-barty-vs-iga-swiatek\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Adelaide Semifinal Predictions Including Ashleigh Barty vs Iga Swiatek"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s semifinal time at the Adelaide International, a WTA 500-level event which featured eight players ranked inside the world\u2019s top 15. There have been quite a few upsets along the way, we\u2019re still left with an interesting mix of major champions, rising stars and underdogs heading into the weekend at the Memorial Drive Tennis Club. Who will advance to Sunday\u2019s championship match?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Adelaide Semifinal Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Elena Rybakina vs Misaki Doi<\/h4>\n<p>H2H: Doi 1-0<\/p>\n<p>Misaki Doi has been the big surprise this week in Adelaide. The draw opened up nicely for the 30-year-old and she\u2019s certainly taken advantage. A 6-3 3-6 6-1 opening round win over Kristina Kucova was followed by a 7-6 6-3 win against Anastasia Gasanova. Doi booked her spot in the final four in dramatic fashion when she saved a pair of match points in a 6-3 4-6 -7-6 win over Kaja Juvan in a match lasting just under 3 hours. Can Doi keep her fairy-tale run alive?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/06\/06\/serena-williams-dominated-elena-rybakina-french-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Elena Rybakina<\/a> hasn\u2019t been at her best this week. Nevertheless, the world #14 has managed to get the job done, something she has made a habit of doing so over the last few years. The Kazakh started her season with a 6-4 1-6 6-1 win over Storm Sanders. There were better signs in a 6-3 6-4 victory against Marie Bouzkova and a gutsy 3-6 6-3 6-2 comeback over Shelby Rogers.<\/p>\n<p>Doi prevailed in the only previous meeting between the pair, a 4-6 6-4 6-4 win on clay in Bastad back in 2019. Rybakina has rocketed up the rankings and improved dramatically since their last meeting and is expected to prevail on this occasion. Doi is at her best when she\u2019s able to dictate with her forehand, she will have limited opportunities to do that against the powerful Rybakina on a relatively quick hard court. Doi has already surpassed all expectations and hasn\u2019t faced an opponent of Rybakina\u2019s level this week, expect Rybakina to be too strong.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Rybakina in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"H0Kibd0ERe5K0T3ryRIHUg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1362885871\" 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:'H0Kibd0ERe5K0T3ryRIHUg',sig:'ROEyajcAtH0KWsXOMAEMF79MFuGVcme-Pm5CIOaZNC8=',w:'594px',h:'549px',items:'1362885871',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Ash Barty vs Iga Swiatek<\/h4>\n<p>H2H: 2-0<\/p>\n<p>A blockbuster semifinal sees a pair of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/french-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Roland Garros<\/a> champions go head-to-head under the lights in Adelaide. Matchups don\u2019t get much tougher than this on the WTA Tour, two of the best players in the world right now.<\/p>\n<p>Ash Barty enters Saturday\u2019s semifinal on the back of a sublime serving display in a 6-3 6-4 win over Sofia Kenin. The World #1 blasted 17 aces past the American and lost just one points behind her first serve. It was a vastly improved performance from her first outing of the week where she battled past Coco Gauff 4-6 7-5 6-1 after trailing by a set and a break.<\/p>\n<p>Iga Swiatek is unbeaten in Adelaide, her winning run has been extended to 8 matches. The defending champion cruised through her first few matches, easily beating Daria Gavrilova 6-3 6-3 and Leylah Fernandez 6-1 6-2. Swiatek didn\u2019t have things all her own way in the quarterfinals but dominated when it mattered as she outlasted Victoria Azarenka 6-3 2-6 6-1.<\/p>\n<p>Tough match to predict, it really comes down to who executes best on the night. If both play at their best, then it\u2019s going to be a great match with little to separate the pair. I\u2019ll give the slightest edge to Barty, the Aussie\u2019s serve was clicking in the previous round and is generally more reliable than Swiatek\u2019s, this could be key in what should be a close match.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Barty in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo from Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s semifinal time at the Adelaide International, a WTA 500-level event which featured eight players ranked inside the world\u2019s top 15. There have been quite a few upsets along the way, we\u2019re still left with an interesting mix of major champions, rising stars and underdogs heading into the weekend at the Memorial Drive Tennis Club. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3921,"featured_media":32464,"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":[69],"tags":[1279,15639,5595,15653,4315,15631,428,15644,2373,2369,10274,14356],"class_list":["post-44893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-ash-barty","tag-ash-barty-predictions","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-elena-rybakina-predictions","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-iga-swiatek-predictions","tag-misaki-doi","tag-misaki-doi-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-adelaide-international","tag-wta-adelaide-international-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44893","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\/3921"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}