{"id":77304,"date":"2025-01-03T08:24:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T13:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=77304"},"modified":"2025-01-03T08:24:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T13:24:56","slug":"wta-brisbane-semifinal-predictions-sabalenka-andreeva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/01\/03\/wta-brisbane-semifinal-predictions-sabalenka-andreeva\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Brisbane Semifinal Predictions Including Mirra Andreeva vs Aryna Sabalenka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four players remain in contention for the 2025 WTA Brisbane International singles title. All eyes will undoubtedly be glued on what promises to be a blockbuster as the two remaining seeds look to battle it out for a place in the final. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka will surely look to exert swift revenge after her shocking defeat at the hands of Russian youngster Mirra Andreeva at the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/french-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">French Open<\/a> quarterfinals last year. Who do you think will make the semifinals?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Brisbane Semifinal Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Polina Kudermetova vs Anhelina Kalinina<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-Head: First Meeting<\/p>\n<p>Few would have predicted Polina Kudermetova\u2019s run to the semifinals in Brisbane, including perhaps herself. The younger Kudermetova has struggled to string together wins in the past but has now tallied six consecutive victories, including impressive upsets over Liudmila Samsonova and Daria Kasatkina. Her latest win, a straight-sets victory over Ashlyn Krueger, further solidified her newfound confidence.<\/p>\n<p>Kalinina, on the other hand, has also exceeded expectations. With no first-round bye, she\u2019s put together a four-match winning streak, highlighted by an upset of Diana Shnaider. Her hardcourt resurgence has been impressive, especially after a difficult 2024 season on this surface. While Kalinina holds the higher ranking and a slight edge on paper, Kudermetova\u2019s momentum and confidence could carry her through another upset. Expect a tight battle, but backing Kudermetova to edge past Kalinina feels like the bold yet justified pick.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Kudermetova in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a  id=\"h-PBIFGgTuF0eVGgN-dBMw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2191514139\" 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:'h-PBIFGgTuF0eVGgN-dBMw',sig:'WXOX5YBzEVmgOnNsfZsQAlNJNu8_EPoxjkmW-ToGAzk=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2191514139',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Aryna Sabalenka vs Mirra Andreeva<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-Head: Sabalenka 2:1 Andreeva<\/p>\n<p>Aryna Sabalenka holds a 2-1 head-to-head lead over Mirra Andreeva, with all three previous meetings coming on clay. Sabalenka won twice in Madrid, while Andreeva upset her at the 2024 French Open.<\/p>\n<p>Both players have made strong starts to the season, each winning three straight matches without dropping a set. Sabalenka powered past Marie Bouzkova in the quarterfinals, striking six aces in a 6-3 6-4 win. Andreeva, meanwhile, showed grit against Ons Jabeur, saving set points before closing out a tight second-set tiebreak.<\/p>\n<p>While Sabalenka\u2019s experience and power give her the edge, Andreeva\u2019s defensive skills could make this a closer battle than expected. Sabalenka remains the favorite, but Andreeva has the tools to push her and keep things close.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Sabalenka in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four players remain in contention for the 2025 WTA Brisbane International singles title. All eyes will undoubtedly be glued on what promises to be a blockbuster as the two remaining seeds look to battle it out for a place in the final. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka will surely look to exert swift revenge after her [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4590,"featured_media":55084,"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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[7418,15925,18985,1766,10073,18509,18510,2373,2369,4156,4935],"class_list":["post-77304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-anhelina-kalinina","tag-anhelina-kalinina-predictions","tag-aryna-sabaleneka-predictions","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-brisbane-international-predictions","tag-polina-kudermetova","tag-polina-kudermetova-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-brisbane-predictions","tag-wta-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77304","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\/4590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77312,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77304\/revisions\/77312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}