World No. 1 Naomi Osaka will face the Estonian Anett Kontaveit in the semifinal of the 2019 WTA Stuttgart Open on Saturday, April 27. The match will start at 6:30 pm local time. Here, you can get the Naomi Osaka v Anett Kontaveit live streaming options.
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Naomi Osaka v Anett Kontaveit Head to Head
The two ladies have met thrice on the WTA Tour although, this is their first meeting on the clay surface. Osaka has won on all the three occasions and she leads Kontaveit by 3-0.
Osaka Gets Going on the Clay!
While Osaka is certainly a formidable player, clay is a surface she is fully yet to master. Last season, her best run on this surface came in the French Open when she reached the third round.
This time around, she has certainly started her campaign on clay on a more convincing note. With a bye into the second round, she first avenged her third-round defeat in Miami this year against Su-Wei Hsieh.
Then, she stunned Donna Vekic in a match that lasted for two hours and 12 minutes. She won the match 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4), after fighting back from 1-5 in the final set. That last set was absolutely cinematic with Vekic looking primed to play on Saturday. But then, Osaka’s winning experience from the Indian Wells, US Open, and the Australian Open came to play.
With just a game standing in her way, Osaka took control of the match and immediately broke her service. At 3-5, she held her service and broke Vekic once again to get back into the match. The score was soon 5-5 following which, it went into a tie-breaker. The rest, as we know, is history.
This is the first time that the 21-year-old Japanese has reached the semifinal on the tour since her winning run in Melbourne. Since then, she couldn’t make it past the early rounds, with shocking defeats in Dubai, Indian Wells, and Miami.
Kontaveit Continues to Impress
This is the second consecutive time in a row that Anett Kontaveit has reached the semifinal on the WTA Tour this season. The last time she did this was in the Miami Open, where she ultimately lost to Ashleigh Barty.
The Estonian continued her clinical performance in Stuttgart as well. She started with a couple of straight-set wins over Caroline Garcia and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Then, in the quarterfinal, she faced Victoria Azarenka and won the match in the third set when the Belarusian withdrew from the match.
It was a close encounter, given that she was down 5-3 in the second but managed to stage a good comeback.
This is certainly a good run by Kontveit, considering that she started her season on a rather dull note. Her form has really picked up over the last few weeks and now, it will be interesting to see how she fares against Osaka. She is certainly a daunting player on clay and is known to hit powerful strokes which force her opponents into making errors.
Osaka v Kontaveit Predictions & Tips
Being the semifinal and the form that the two ladies are in, this is going to be too close to call. While Osaka has more experience winning on a big stage, Kontaveit has the edge on clay. Call it a gut feeling, but the Estonian may be able to deliver the upset here.
Tip: Kontaveit to win: 6/5 (888Sport)
You can watch & bet on Naomi Osaka v Anett Kontaveit on Saturday, April 27 here. Get the Barcelona Open tips and predictions here, and the rest of the tennis predictions and tips here.
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