Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, seeded second, will play Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, seeded eight in the final of the WTA St. Petersburg Open on Sunday, February 16. The match will begin at 2.30 pm local time (1.30 pm BST). You can find the Kiki Bertens v Elena Rybakina live streaming options along with its preview, head to head and tips here.
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Kiki Bertens v Elena Rybakina Head to Head
The pair have met once before, in the semi-final at ‘s-Hertogenbosch last year, Bertens winning in straight sets in front of her home crowd.
Bertens, Defending Champion Back in the Final
Bertens is in her first singles final of the year, although she was a beaten finalist, together with Ashleigh Barty, in the doubles in Brisbane.
The Dutch number one and world number eight, has made a strong start to 2020, reaching the fourth round in Melbourne for the first time, and playing a starring role for her country in the Fed Cup Qualifiers last week. And now she has the chance to consolidate that progress by defending the title she won 12 months ago.
So far, she has only played Russian opponents in this event. She began on Thursday with a comfortable straight sets win over Veronica Kudermetova, dropping just three games to the world number 38. Anastasia Potapova, the former junior world number one, offered a stiffer challenge, but she too was defeated in straight sets, although Bertens required a tie-break to take the second.
In her semi-final, she played Ekaterina Alexandrova, the woman who beat Rybakina in the final of Shenzen, and cruised through the first set in just half an hour. However, Alexandrova fought back to level the match, before Bertens regained ascendancy in the third set, and went on to clinch the victory.
Rybakina, Third Final of 2020 Already
20 year old Rybakina is in her fifth WTA final in seven months, and she has already won two of then, in Bucharest last July, and in Hobart in January. A few weeks before that she was the beaten finalist in Shenzen, losing to the Russian Alexandrova.
That makes St. Petersburg her third final of the year, but, for the world number 25, it is a step up in level – she has never got this far in a Premier event before.
Her path to the final though has not been all plain sailing, despite a comparatively easy victory over Fiona Ferro of France in the first round, She was made to work a lot harder by another French opponent, Oceane Dodin, who took the first set off her, before Rybakina rallied to take the next two.
And it was a similar story in her semi-final with the number six seed, Maria Sakkari, with the Greek winning the first set before Rybakina battled back to clinch her place in another final.
Kiki Bertens v Elena Rybakina Predictions & Tips
Bertens as the defending champion will start the favourite for this match, having won their previous match and also having defeated Alexandrova, the woman who beat Rybakina in Shenzen recently.
Tip: Bertens to win in straight sets: 1/1 (Click here to get these odds with Unibet)
You can watch & bet on Bertens v Rybakina on Sunday, February 16 here. . Get the latest tennis predictions and tips here.
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