World number eight Serena Williams continues her march towards her 24th Grand Slam as she takes on the unranked, but stunning performer Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarterfinal of the 2020 US Open on Wednesday, September 9. The match timing is still to be scheduled. Get the live streaming options of this Serena Williams v Tsvetana Pironkova match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Serena Williams v Tsvetana Pironkova Head to Head
Before Pironkova retired from the sport – before returning this year – she had played Serena four times and lost all those four matches. The only time the Bulgarian won a set in their meetings was 13 years ago at a French Open first round match.
Since then, Serena has won each time in straight sets, at Eastbourne, Beijing and Cincinnati Open.
Also Read:
Serena Survives Sakkari Grit
Williams looked to be heading towards a straightforward win in her fourth round match against Maria Sakkari when she won the first set 6-3 but as the match grew on, her Greek opponent kept fighting back, saving break-points and took the second set into a tie-breaker.
Having missed out on a few set-points earlier in the set, Sakkari had a couple more during the tie-breaker before she won it 8-6.
Serena, however, looked to be in control of her play throughout, and having gotten broken just once in the entire match, she responded aggressively in the final set.
30 winners from Serena’s racquet were still five lesser than what her opponent managed but the American managed to take toll of Sakkari’s second serve rather well – the Greek winning just 19 of her 40 second serves as compared to 29 from 49 for Serena.
This was Serena’s second successive three-setter, having needed to come back from a set down to defeat Sloane Stephens in the previous round. Her first couple of wins came against Kristie Ahn and Margarita Gasparyan, both straight-set wins.
She now takes on an opponent making a comeback of a lifetime but with not a lot of weapons to test the 23-time Grand Slam winner.
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Pironkova Juggernaut Rolls on to the Quarterfinal
Pironkova featured in 49 editions of Grand Slam tournaments between 2005 and 2017 and made it to the quarterfinals on three occasions before retiring. And now featuring in her first since return, and 50th overall, she has gotten there yet again.
Not too many would have given her a chance of making it to the quarterfinal coming into this tournament. First there’s always some amount of rustiness, and then again, there’s a peak in every player’s career which one would typically have reached at some prior point.
Forget about others giving her a chance, Pironkova herself seemed surprised at making it to the last-eight. After defeating Alize Cornet in three hard-fought sets, the Bulgarian exclaimed:
“It’s really unbelievable that I took it this far, and I actually managed to win four matches, and especially the last one which lasted I think about three hours.”
Wins over Garbine Muguruza and Donna Vekic, not to mention a hard-fought victory against Cornet, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, make it super special for one of the nine moms who had started the US Open singles draw. In her quarterfinal, she takes on one of the other eight, one who is aspiring to become only the second player in the history of the sport to win 24 Grand Slams.
Things wouldn’t have been too easy for Pironkova even before this but they are about to get very tough, very quickly.
Williams v Pironkova Prediction & Tip
This should be a more straightforward win for Serena than the previous two. Serena is 1/6 to win this and 1/2 to do that in straight sets, which is what we think will happen here.
Tip: Serena Williams to win in straight sets: 1/2 (bet365)
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The US Open 2020 will be played from August 31 to September 13. You can watch & bet on the US Open here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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