The semifinals at the 2019 WTA Kremlin Cup will be played on Saturday, October 19 with Belinda Bencic needing a win to qualify for the WTA Finals. Get the Belinda Bencic v Kristina Mladenovic & Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Karolina Muchova preview, predictions, tips, and other statistics.
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Belinda Bencic v Kristina Mladenovic Predictions & Preview
This will be the sixth time that Belinda Bencic and Kristina Mladenovic will be facing off and strangely, Mladenovic has a 4-1 lead over her Swiss opponent. They had played once earlier this year too and Mladenovic, who is 45th in the world, had won that Rome Open match on clay in three sets. Bencic’s only win had come on grass in their first ever encounter.
Bencic looked like she was going to get stretched by Kirsten Flipkens in her quarterfinal much like she had been in her previous match by Polona Hercog. However, after fighting off Flipkens in the first set tie-breaker and winning it 10-8, the fight looked to be gone from her opponent and she raced to a straight-set win.
What it does is to take her a step away from qualifying for the WTA Finals. A win here and she should usurp both Kiki Bertens – who was knocked out by Mladenovic – and Serena Williams on the rankings chart. A defeat here, however, would result in Bencic needing at least one of the players in front of her to withdraw from the tournament.
Mladenovic has been stretched to three sets in each of her three matches in this tournament but shown remarkable tenacity in winning them. Her latest scalp was Bertens, the world number eight, having gone into the match as a second favourite by a distance for the second time in a row.
Given Bencic’s recent form, the pressure of needing to win this match and Mladenovic’s fighting capabilities on show in this tournament, this could get a lot closer that one thinks. Another three-setter in the offing.
Tip: Three sets in the match: 7/5 with Unibet
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Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Karolina Muchova Predictions & Preview
35th-ranked Karolina Muchova will be up against the 40th-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in their Kremlin Cup semifinal and this will be their first ever meeting. And the reward for the winner would be another final this season with Pavlyuchenkova having gotten there once before in 2019 and Muchova been there twice.
Muchova has even won one title, winning the Seoul Open after having lost in the final at Prague. Earlier she ran past Svetlana Kuznetsova and Donna Vekica in her first two rounds here before crushing Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets.
Pavlyuchenkova has gone through her own ups and downs this year, including a time when she lost six matches in a row. For a player to have earlier made it to the Australian Open quarterfinal and then go through that kind of a slump would have been hard to take.
The good news for the Russian was she hasn’t seen a major change in her ranking with a season-high of 32nd. And a win here and another final will take her closer to that as she gains points over her last year’s performance in which she made the quarter-final here.
Still expecting Muchova to start a favourite here.
Tip: Muchova to win: 8/11 with Unibet
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