{"id":62762,"date":"2024-01-11T09:27:43","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T14:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=62762"},"modified":"2024-01-11T09:27:43","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T14:27:43","slug":"wta-adelaide-semifinal-predictions-pegula-kasatkina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/01\/11\/wta-adelaide-semifinal-predictions-pegula-kasatkina\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Adelaide Semifinal Predictions Including Jessica Pegula vs Daria Kasatkina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The quarterfinals at the WTA Adelaide International saw one of the biggest shocks of the season so far. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/12\/26\/elena-rybakina-2023-season-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Last year&#8217;s Australian Open runner-up Elena Rybakina<\/a> had her six-match winning streak ended by Ekaterina Alexandrova. That means <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/12\/12\/jessica-pegula-2023-season-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">2023 WTA Finals runner-up Jessica Pegula<\/a> is the highest seed left of the four players. As always, we at LWOT predict the outcomes of both semifinals. But which two players do you think will reach the final?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Adelaide Semifinal Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Jelena Ostapenko vs Ekaterina Alexandrova<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: Alexandrova 5-3 Ostapenko<\/p>\n<p>This is a very interesting contest between two players who have competed against each other many times. Alexandrova edges the overall head-to-head, but two of those wins were by retirement. Their last match was at last year&#8217;s San Diego Open, where Ostapenko made a stunning comeback from 5-2 and a double break down in the third set. It is likely to be a tight battle at the WTA Adelaide International between two women who hit powerfully and aggressively from the baseline and are each in very good form.<\/p>\n<p>The most important factor is probably going to be Ostapenko&#8217;s focus, which has often faltered in the past. Can she stay mentally strong during times that the big-serving Alexandrova is not giving her a chance to break? The early signs this season have been positive in that regard. This could go either way, and is a tough one to call. Despite Alexandrova&#8217;s huge scalp in the last round, Ostapenko&#8217;s ultra-aggressive baseline game gets a slight edge. She looks to be in a good mindset this week at the WTA Adelaide International.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Ostapenko in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"ABUqh5nOQIp1kYR5U5rUew\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1923757959\" 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:'ABUqh5nOQIp1kYR5U5rUew',sig:'yMXsmZyukCdOqW8TZdW2vh3UBG60vMHdu0vaS4UKEoY=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1923757959',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Jessica Pegula vs Daria Kasatkina<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: Pegula 2-0 Kasatkina<\/p>\n<p>Pegula has not been at her vintage best this week. She has had to fight through from a set down in both previous matches, although Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova deserves credit for the performance she put up in the quarterfinal. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/12\/09\/daria-kasatkina-2023-season-review\/ target=\" target=\"_self\">Last year&#8217;s WTA Elite Trophy semifinalist Daria Kasatkina<\/a> benefited from a walkover in the quarterfinal from Laura Siegemund, which would have been welcome after a very long match in the WTA Adelaide International second-round.<\/p>\n<p>Kasatkina&#8217;s lack of firepower is a recurring issue for her against top players like Pegula. The hand-eye coordination, consistency and extra firepower of the American is one that should beat the gritty Kasatkina most of the time. Fatigue may be a slight concern after two three-set matches for Pegula, but she is very fit, and is likely to be ready. It would be wrong to completely rule out a great competitor like Kasatkina, but Pegula is certainly the strong favourite at the WTA Adelaide International.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Pegula in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The quarterfinals at the WTA Adelaide International saw one of the biggest shocks of the season so far. Last year&#8217;s Australian Open runner-up Elena Rybakina had her six-match winning streak ended by Ekaterina Alexandrova. That means 2023 WTA Finals runner-up Jessica Pegula is the highest seed left of the four players. As always, we at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4708,"featured_media":60908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[416,15436,4184,15526,473,15564,3535,15652,2373,2369,17120],"class_list":["post-62762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-daria-kasatkina","tag-daria-kasatkina-predictions","tag-ekaterina-alexandrova","tag-ekaterina-alexandrova-predictions","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-jelena-ostapenko-predictions","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-jessica-pegula-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-adelaide-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62762","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\/4708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}