The semifinal of the 2019 Miami Open will have Simona Halep lock horns with Karolina Pliskova on Thursday evening. The match will be played on March 28 and will start after 9:00 pm local time (1:00 am BST the next day). Get Simona Halep v Karolina Pliskova live streaming options here.
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Simona Halep v Karolina Pliskova Head to Head
The two ladies have a fierce rivalry that has been dominated largely by Halep. They have met nine times so far and Halep won seven of those matches.
They last met in the Fed Cup earlier this year, where Halep won in three sets. As for Pliskova, her last win over Halep came in the Madrid Open last year.
Pliskova Faces a Tough Test
If we are to compare Pliskova’s form with Halep’s this season, we will see that the Czech has had a much better spell. With one singles title and three big tournaments where she made a quarterfinal appearance at least, her consistency and form have been at a level above than others.
In Miami, she reached her third semifinal of the season, with the other two being the WTA Brisbane and Australian Open. Pliskova defeated Marketa Vondrousova 6-3, 6-4 to set up the Halep match. Throughout the tournament, Pliskova has looked comfortable as she moved past Alize Cornet and Yulia Putintseva without facing many difficulties.
This season, in addition to Halep, Pliskova has also been defeated by Belinda Bencic, Su-Wei Hsieh, and Naomi Osaka.
A Chance for Halep to Reach the No. 1 Ranking
Halep started the competition with a chance to reach the No. 1 spot again. Now, she is just one win away from taking back the crown.
In Miami, she has been fairly impressive and has done well to get past that shocking fourth-round loss to Vondrousova in the Indian Wells a couple of weeks ago. In the initial rounds, she defeated Taylor Townsend and Polona Hercog before moving past Venus Williams in three sets.
In the quarterfinal, she faced Wang Qiang and once again, she won that match in straight sets to reach the semifinal.
The Romanian’s season so far has been rather uneventful by her standards with early defeats in Sydney and Melbourne. However, in the Middle East swing, she reached the final in Doha and quarterfinal in WTA Dubai. Owing to her rather decent run there, she managed to stay in the top three.
Her decision to play with a new coach has worked rather well for her so far. However, this match against Pliskova will prove to be quite demanding and it will be interesting to see how she fares here.
Halep v Pliskova Predictions & Tips
Halep will start as the favourite here, given her ranking, her form in Miami and more importantly, her massive 7-2 lead over Pliskova. However, just like her Czech counterpart, she is susceptible to defeats.
This is a mouth-watering clash that can very well go either way.
Tip: Over 21.5 games in the match: 4/5 (Bet365)
You can watch & bet on Simona Halep v Karolina Pliskova on Thursday, March 28 here.
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