World number three and second seeded Simona Halep will take on Belarusian and seventh-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinal of the 2021 WTA Stuttgart Open on Saturday, April 24. Get the live streaming options of this Simona Halep v Aryna Sabalenka match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Simona Halep v Aryna Sabalenka Head to Head
Halep leads Sabalenka 3-1 on head to head with all the four matches having come on hard court surfaces.
The world number three won the first two in 2018 in Shenzhen and Cincinnati while Sabalenka pulled one back in 2020 when they met in Adelaide. That very year, however, Halep took the next match with a three-set win in the WTA Dubai quarterfinals
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Halep Continues to Dominate
Once Halep had dominated her opening opponent Marketa Vondrosuova in their second round match the way she did, any hopes any of her opponents would have had of the former Grand Slam winner being rusty would have dissipated. And that’s exactly how things turned out in the quarterfinal as well.
Facing Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, Halep continued to be equally ruthless as she registered a 6-1, 6-4 victory over her opponent to march in the last four.
In a match lasting a mere hour and 12 minutes, Halep began with two breaks of serve to forge a 4-0 lead before closing out the set. She broke again in the opening game of the second set and while Alexandrova finally broke back to get some respite, a couple of further exchanges of breaks later, Halep carved out a decisive break in the ninth game.
The Romanian survived four break-points and frittered away two match-points while serving for the match but still managed to eke out the win in straight sets in the end.
She will have to have the upper hand against an equally tough competitor next.
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Sabalenka Needs Three Against Kontaveit
Sabalenka has been the form player all season and that has seen in her steady rise in the rankings which has now seen her hit a career-best of world number seven. Like Halep there were questions regarding her switch to clay, this tournament in Stuttgart being her first of the season but those question-marks have fast gone.
It started with a 6-2, 6-2 drubbing of Shuai Zhang before Sabalenka dispatched Anna-Lena Friedsam in straight sets to make it to the last eight.
And while Anett Kontaveit put up a strong fight in their quarterfinal, Sabalenka came through 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 to set up the Halep meeting. In a match lasting two and a half hours, the first set went to serve till the 11th game with Sabalenka having to save three break-points. The 12th game, however, saw the Belarusian break her opponent off the first chance she got – also winning the set as a result.
In what turned out to be one of the longest games in recent times, Kontaveit began the second set with a break – it was off the eighth break-point – and then made it 4-0 with a second such break to ensure the second set would be hers.
An early exchange of serves in the third pointed to the match getting closer but that’s where Sabalenka took off with back to back breaks of serves but most importantly with better serving to clinch the encounter.
She would need to do a lot better with her serving though – she conceded 18 break-points – against a player of Halep’s calibre.
Halep v Sabalenka Prediction and Tip
Halep is 4/9 to win this which is a banker here but we will go a step further to say the Romanian should complete a straight-set win in this one.
Tip: Halep to win in straight sets: 11/10 (bet365)
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The 2021 WTA Stuttgart Open will be played from April 19 to 25. You can watch & bet on these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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