{"id":56241,"date":"2023-04-21T16:43:49","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T20:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=56241"},"modified":"2023-04-21T16:43:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T20:43:49","slug":"wta-stuttgart-semifinal-predictions-swiatek-jabeur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/04\/21\/wta-stuttgart-semifinal-predictions-swiatek-jabeur\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Stuttgart Semifinal Predictions Including Iga Swiatek vs Ons Jabeur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The WTA Stuttgart Open continues to deliver with a gripping set of semifinal matchups. Defending champion Iga Swiatek faces in-form Tunisian Ons Jabeur who is on a seven-match winning streak. While the other semifinal pits second seed Aryna Sabalenka against Russia&#8217;s rising star <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/03\/06\/indian-wells-breakouts-to-watch\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Anastasia Potapova<\/a>. Who do you think will advance into Sunday&#8217;s final?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Stuttgart Semifinal Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Aryna Sabalenka vs Anastasia Potapova<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Aryna Sabalenka&#8217;s come-from-behind win over Paula Badosa duly delivered from a spectacle standpoint. Badosa was in cruise control, leading by a set and break. But the Belorussian is a pillar of consistency this year and never ceased to believe she would turn the match around. It took two and a half hours, but Sabalenka came through 4-6 6-4 6-4 in an instant classic. <\/p>\n<p>Anastasia Potapova, for her part, harnessed her power to secure her own comeback win against Caroline Garcia. The World #24 had not reached a WTA 500 semifinal before, but she&#8217;s changed that with her second Top 10 win in a row. However, Potapova is unlikely to get away with handing nearly double-digit break points. Therefore, a third top-10 win in succession is a tall order, and more so when the opponent on the other side of the court is Sabalenka who is 20-3 for the season.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Sabalenka in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"SExjbGLWQNZht3lzGByaCQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1252046675\" 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:'SExjbGLWQNZht3lzGByaCQ',sig:'c_y1sFvahGMqm-ulWmx7Wxr6b-wOTeBYlTIu7OpPxjo=',w:'594px',h:'374px',items:'1252046675',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Iga Swiatek vs Ons Jabeur<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head:<\/strong> Swiatek 3-2 Jabeur<\/p>\n<p>Iga Swiatek played in her first three-set match of the year and defeated Karolina Pliskova 4-6 6-1 6-2. Swiatek was slow off the blocks, falling to 0-4 down in the first set. But she quickly moved through the gears and her return game was off the charts. She tore Pliskova&#8217;s serve to shreds in the second and third sets. Her title defense will face the first acid test in the semis when she takes on in-form Ons Jabeur. The Tunisian trailblazer dominated Beatriz Haddad Maia with her technical expertise from the baseline dropping just three games in their quarterfinal.<\/p>\n<p>For Jabeur, having so many shots up her sleeve, the biggest problem can be deciding which shot to use. But as she put it herself in her post-match interview, she is able to make the right choices when she is relaxed on the court. Obviously, Swiatek isn&#8217;t going to give her the luxury and comfort of playing her well-disguised drop shots with so much freedom. On her current win streak, Jabeur looks good value to at least take a set here, but expect Swiatek to come through a potential humdinger.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Swiatek in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Taya Gray\/The Desert Sun \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The WTA Stuttgart Open continues to deliver with a gripping set of semifinal matchups. Defending champion Iga Swiatek faces in-form Tunisian Ons Jabeur who is on a seven-match winning streak. While the other semifinal pits second seed Aryna Sabalenka against Russia&#8217;s rising star Anastasia Potapova. Who do you think will advance into Sunday&#8217;s final? WTA [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2341,"featured_media":55583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[1526,15429,1766,15523,4315,15631,1096,15426,2373,2369,5616],"class_list":["post-56241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-anastasia-potapova","tag-anastasia-potapova-predictions","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-aryna-sabalenka-predictions","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-iga-swiatek-predictions","tag-ons-jabeur","tag-ons-jabeur-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-stuttgart-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56241","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\/2341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}