Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Ekaterina Alexandrova Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Japan Open

Prediction published on 28/09/2023, 06:32  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 28/09/2023 at 07:34 in Tennis Predictions

We're guaranteed an unseeded player in the last four of the hard court Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova faces Ekaterina Alexandrova with the winner taking on either top seed Iga Swiatek or eigth seeded Veronika Kudermetova in the semi-finals. Pavlyuchenkova began tis tournament ranked 86th in the world but is up to 71st in the live rankings. That's still way adrift of the 11th position the Russian was in a couple of years ago. Her best form has been shown on clay with a semi-final and quarter final at Roland Garros in the past three tournaments. Appearances on hard courts have been rare this year, though she did get to the last 32 at the Australian Open eight months ago. This tournament has seen her beat Donna Vekic (only losing two games) and Linda Noskova in three sets. Pavlyuchenkova won the first set, lost the middle one but then won the decider without dropping a game.

World number 21 Ekaterina Alexandrova is up a place in the live rankings. Winning this match can see her climb up to as high as 17th and that'd be just one place below her career best. The 28-year-old had only won one of her last four matches before this tournament began. Two of those losses were against Marketa Vondrousova and Jelena Ostapenko, so not easy draws. Last month saw her reach the final of the tournament held in Cleveland and that followed a good spell on grass in the summer when winning the Libema Open. The first round in Tokyo saw her have to come from a set down to beat Anna Kalinskaya but round two saw her get a straight sets win over seventh seed (and defending champion) Liudmila Samsonova. Alexandrova has only  had one previous match against her opponent. That was in the Linz hard court tournament five years ago with Alexandrova winning in straight sets. It might be closer this time but we still opt for Alexandrova to win.