The top seeded Sofia Kenin of the USA will take on Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany in the final of the WTA Lyon Open on Sunday, March 8. The match is scheduled for 3 pm local time (2 pm BST) and you can find the Sofia Kenin v Anna-Lena Friedsam live streaming options along with its preview, head to head and tips here.
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Sofia Kenin v Anna-Lena Friedsam Head to Head
The pair have never played each other before. This will be the first meeting between the American, currently five in the world, and the German ranked 130 places below her.
Also Read:
Kenin Pushed All the Way in France
The Australian Open champion Kenin has had her problems adjusting to the extra attention that comes with being a Grand Slam winner, and had her struggles subsequent to Melbourne, losing all her singles matches playing for the USA in the Fed Cup, and knocked out at the first time of asking in Dubai and Doha.
Nor has everything gone strictly according to plan in Lyon. She began well enough with a comfortable straight sets win over Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia, but then had to come from a set down to beat the world 174 Jaqueline Cristian of Romania. And then the French wildcard Oceane Dodin also took a set of her in their quarter-final.
However, it was her semi-final opponent Alison van Uytvanck, the number five seed, who offered her the toughest challenge of the week. After Kenin took the first set on a tie break, the Belgian hit back to level the match, also after a tie break.
There was nothing to choose between the two women in the third set, and that also went to a tie break before Kenin finally broke her opponent’s serve, and consolidated the mini-break to close out the match after two hours and 30 minutes.
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Friedsam, an Unlikely Finalist in Lyon
26 year old Friedsam was once ranked as high as 45 in the world, but that was more than 3 years ago, and she began this event outside the top 100. This will be the second WTA final of her career, the other coming at the Linz Open in 2015, when she was beaten by the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
These days she spends most of her time on the ITF circuit – Lyon is only the second senior WTA event this year where she has appeared in the main draw, the other being Shenzen where she was beaten in the first round by Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in straight sets.
However, she had had a fine run in eastern France this week, beating first Anastasiya Komardina of Russia, and then the world number 42 and local favourite, Kristina Mladenovic, both in straight sets. She followed that up with a quarter final win in three sets over Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia, and then defeated another higher ranked player, this time in the form of the Russian Daria Kasatkina to set up the meeting with Kenin.
Sofia Kenin v Anna-Lena Friedsam Predictions & Tips
Although Kenin has really had to battle to get to the final, she is playing an opponent ranked more than 100 places below her in the world, and appearing at this stage of an event for the first time in more than four years. The American should win her second event of the year to go alongside the Australian Open.
Tip: Kenin to win in straight sets: 10/11 (Click here to get these odds with Unibet)
You can watch & bet on Kenin v Friedsam on Sunday, March 8 here. Get the latest tennis predictions and tips here.
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