Semi Final

Vondrousova (3.15) v Muguruza (1.47)

This will be the first time they have played.

Long term overall results and also results in the last 12 months favour Muguruza. Her hard court results are also stronger.

Last season Muguruza had some excellent results on hard courts. In January she reached the semis in Shenzhen, quarter finals in Hobart and reached the final of the Australian Open. She had another quarter final in February in Doha. At the US Open she fell in the second round to Tsvetana Pironkova in straight sets which was disappointing but Pironkova surprised a few people in that tournament. Last month she reached the quarter finals in Abu Dhabi.

Muguruza has not lost a set so far in the tournament. She has not lost more than 2 games in a set. In the first round she beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-2, 6-0. I had expected Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to give her a few problems but in the end put up very little resistance. She was beaten 6-1, 6-2. Even Sofia Kenin only managed to break the Muguruza serve once, losing 6-2, 6-2.

Vondrousova has been market favourite in each round this week. Varvara Gracheva kept their opening set close but didn’t win a game in set two. I fancied Vera Zvonareva to take her out in the second round and it was a real battle. Zvonareva served for the first set but was broken and Vondrousova took it in a tie break. Zvonareva corrected that mistake by taking the second set in a tie break. In the deciding set Zvonareva went a break up at 4-3 but 2 breaks of serve for Vondrousova gave her the win. She lost the opening set in the last round against Podoroska but took the vistory with the match tie break decider.

Back Muguruza around 1.80 to 1.90.

Update: A very one sided match. Muguruza won 6-1, 6-0.

 

This will be a busy night. All yesterday’s matches will start at the same time tonight. That is because they will have to play another match tonight to catch up having lost a full day’s play.

If I can stay awake I’ll send an email out to Trading Tips subscribers with the second lot of matches but bear in mind there won’t be much time to get them all done. I probably won’t bother with the ATP Cup matches as they often change the players just before the match.  

With the Australian Open starting on Monday (Sunday night) the players won’t be keen to play 2 matches in the same day. It really saps the energy levels and it takes longer to recover.   My best guess is that they will play the first matches to win but might try to cruise/tank the second match. I think it is more likely that the top players will withdraw from a match rather than tank it.  

The WTA matches will not have a normal 3rd set. it will be replaced by a match tie break. Same rules as a normal tie break except it will be the first to 10 points. I have not heard that they are doing the same on the men’s matches but if you check the scoreboard on Bet365 there will be a message above the scoreboard with any change of rules  

Be careful out there!