Third seed Belinda Bencic from Switzerland will take on the Frenchwoman, Kristina Mladenovic in the semi-finals at the Kremlin Open on Saturday, October 19. The match is scheduled for 1 pm local time (11 am BST). You can find Belinda Bencic v Kristina Mladenovic live streaming options along with its preview, head to head and tips here.
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Belinda Bencic v Kristina Mladenovic Head to Head
The pair have met five times so far in their careers. And surprisingly, Mladenovic has won on four occasions. Bencic’s only victory came back in 2015 on grass courts at Hertogenbosch.
Bencic, the Only Seeded Player Left
In 2016, Bencic became the first teenager since Caroline Wozniacki since 2009 to break into the top 10 in the WTA rankings. She achieved this foot when she was just 18. But injuries and inconsistent form upon the return halter her progress to the next level. She suffered five injuries in 2016 itself resulting in her having to retire midway from matches or tournaments.
Even upon her return, niggling injuries meant she could never get a run of few tournaments under her belt. This resulted in her rankings dropping to as low as 318. Finally, this year, she seems to be finding the right balance between playing as many matches as she can to go back to the top as well as maintaining her fitness.
Bencic paired up with Iain Hughes in 2017 during her recovery from a wrist injury. And the results have shown a vast improvement in the second half of last year and this year especially.
She won in Dubai and followed it up with a semi-final showing in Indian Wells. She reached another final at the Madrid Open soon after. Bencic achieved her career-best grand slam performance at the US Open reaching the semi-finals.
After a minor blip at the start of the Asian swing, she seems to be back to her best this week. She came through a tricky round of 16 ties before winning in straight sets in the quarter-finals. Her only appearance in Moscow prior to this year was in 2016 when she crashed out in the first round itself.
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Fatigue a Concern for Mladenovic
In the last two years, Mladenovic has reached eleven quarter-finals. She has failed to go past this stage in eight of them and has gone on to win the tournament in none. This steady, hardworking Frenchwoman has found unlocking the later stages of tournaments extremely tough. In fact, her semi-final appearance at Zhengzhou last month was her first appearance in the last four this year, after six unsuccessful attempts.
Currently ranked number 45 in the world, the 26-year old broke into the world top 10 earlier in her career. But lack of success on the business end has meant that she has never been able to sustain enough ranking points to stay in the top 20. For someone closing in on 650 career matches, she only has two WTA tour titles to show for.
Belinda Bencic v Kristina Mladenovic Predictions & Tips
Bencic is goes into the match much fresher after playing only four matches this month, starting from Beijing. Mladenovic, on the other hand, has played 13 matches at the same time.
This week itself, all three of Frenchwoman’s matches went into the third set. This will be a crucial factor in the match, as playing four matches in five days is bound to take a toll on a player who has struggled at this end of tournaments multiple times.
With Bencic being the only seeded player left in the tournament, it is her title to lose from this point onwards.
Tip: Bencic to win in straight sets: 10/11 with 888Sport
You can watch & bet on Bencic v Mladenovic on Friday, October 19 here. . Get the latest tennis predictions and tips here.
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