{"id":96943,"date":"2026-01-28T16:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=96943"},"modified":"2026-01-28T16:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:27:14","slug":"wta-australian-open-semifinal-best-bets-rybakina-vs-pegula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/28\/wta-australian-open-semifinal-best-bets-rybakina-vs-pegula\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Australian Open Semifinal Best Bets Including Jessica Pegula vs Elena Rybakina"},"content":{"rendered":"

The semifinals for the WTA Australian Open are set, and the matches are top-notch. Only one American ended up in the semifinals, and the rest are the usual faces.\u00a0 LWOS has our best bets for the two semifinal matches.\u00a0 Please share your best bets in the comments section.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

WTA Australian Open<\/b><\/h2>\n

Sabalenka <\/b>\u2013 Svitolina<\/b>: Time 00:30<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 5-1<\/b><\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka is the overwhelming favorite to win the Australian Open, at this point. Her semifinal match is against Elina Svitolina,\u00a0 against whom she has a 5-1 career record. Svitolina enters the match a perfect 10-0 on the year. Of course, Sabalenka also enters the match at 10-0 this year. Someone is going to experience their first loss of the year, and it’s going to come at a heartbreaking stage.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

There’s a reason that Sabalenka is a 4-1 favorite on the books. I think Svitolina might be playing well enough to win this match, but the smart money is on the two-time winner. There isn’t enough value in taking Sabalenka straight, but I do think there’s value in taking the over on 20.5 games played. When these two meet, the matches are fairly close and heavily contested. Take the over and cash out happy.<\/p>\n

That being said, Over 20.5 games<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Over 20.5 games<\/strong><\/span> @1.86 <\/b>@1xBet<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pegula <\/b>\u2013 <\/b>Rybakina<\/b><\/b>: Time 02:00<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 3-3<\/b><\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina have a solid rivalry that will add another chapter. The series is tied up at 3-3, with Rybakina getting the last win in the 2025 Masters Cup semifinals in three sets. In fact, Rybakina has won their last two matches. You have to go back to 2023 to find Pegula’s last win over Rybakina.<\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

The books have Rybakina as the favorite by a half-point, and I agree. I think Rybakina has been playing some of her best tennis in early 2026. She hasn’t been perfect, but she’s only had one match go to a third set in her last ten matches. Both women are 8-2 in their last ten matches. At 2.23 on Betfair, Rybakina 2:0 is the smart play.<\/p>\n

That being said,\u00a0 Rybakina<\/strong> winning 2:0<\/strong><\/b>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Rybakina<\/strong><\/span> winning 2:0<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>@2.23 @Betfair<\/b><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Jerry Lai–USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The semifinals for the WTA Australian Open are set, and the matches are top-notch. Only one American ended up in the semifinals, and the rest are the usual faces.\u00a0 LWOS has our best bets for the two semifinal matches.\u00a0 Please share your best bets in the comments section.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 WTA Australian Open Sabalenka \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":60908,"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":[7,17400,4],"tags":[43519,205,17399,42761],"class_list":["post-96943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-best-bets","category-wta","tag-2026-wta-australian-open","tag-australian-open","tag-best-bets","tag-wta-australian-open"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96943","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\/5481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96944,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96943\/revisions\/96944"}],"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=96943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}