The final of the 2019 WTA Guangzhou Open will be played on Saturday, September 21 between Samantha Stosur and Sofia Kenin. Latest Sofia Kenin v Samantha Stosur tips and predictions with their previews along with others can be found below.
Get the best odds for WTA Korea Open 2019 with 888Sport here.[the_ad_group id=”1639″]
*Geo-restrictions apply & pre-funded account needed
Sofia Kenin v Samantha Stosur Preview
Kenin was finally stretched to an unexpected third set by Anna Blinkova in the semi-final but the American came through 6-1 in the final set to set up this meeting. What that did was to improve Kenin’s record on hard court surfaces to 31-11 this year which is over and above the title she won on grass at Mallorca – such has been her form.
No surprises then that once ranked 56 this year, Kenin has broken into the top 20 now – her highest career rank – and a title win her should help her push to number 18th in the world.
What’s interesting is her head to head record against Stosur isn’t what you would expect, especially considering she has played the Aussie only in the last two years – around the time when Stosur has had big troubles getting going.
It’s 2-0 in favour of Stosur, which includes two, straight-set wins and one as recently as the Eastbourne Open earlier this year.
Stosur, ranked 129th in the world, looks to be coming into her own at long last. The 35-year-old had had a string of failures stitched together since the 2016 French Open semi-final when she made it to the semi-final and lost to Garbine Muguruza.
In the three and something years that have followed since then, Stosur entered the semi-final at the Strasbourg Open in 2017 – she won that title – the Mallorca Open in 2018 and now at Guangzhou in 2019. For a former US Open champion, this has been a huge fall, having tasted the number four ranking in the world at one point.
In fact, before the start of this competition, Stosur was 6-10 win-loss on hard courts, which included a first round loss at the US Open and a qualifying defeat at the New York Open. All of this adds a lot of value to her run to the final in which she might not have played a very high-ranked opponent – there are wins over Tereza Martincova, Bernarda Pera, Nina Stojanvic and Vikorija Golubic – but she has done enough to deserve a strong mention as one of the players to have come back really well from the situation she was in.
Tip: Kenin to win in three sets: 8/5 with Unibet