Daria Kasatkina vs Beatriz Haddad Maia Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Korea Open

Prediction published on 21/09/2024, 08:40  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 21/09/2024 at 10:37 in Tennis Predictions

Top seed Daria Kasatkina takes on third-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia in the Korea Open final.  Both players have reached this WTA 500 hard court final without losing a set. Read our match prediction for this final.

World number 12 Daria Kasatkina is up a place in the live rankings. Winning this title will see her climb up to ninth and that's just one place below her career-high. The Russian is tenth in the WTA Live Race.

Winning the Korea Open will boost her chances of making it into the lucrative end-of-season WTA Tour Finals. It's not been the hardest of routes to the final for the 27-year-old with wins over Hailey Baptiste and then Emma Raducanu via a second set retirement.

That took her into a semi-final against fourth seed Diana Shnaider and that was won in straight sets. The Russian trails Maia 2-1 in previous meetings, all played on hard courts. The most recent saw Kasatkina win in this year's Abu Dhabi semi-final.

Beatriz Haddad Maia is up four places to 13th in the live rankings and 18th in the WTA Race. The Brazilian is currently in excellent form and this is her second hard court final in successive months.

August saw her reach the final in Cleveland and followed that up with a run to the last eight of the US Open. Her good form has continued in Seoul with three straight sets victories.

It's unlikely that Maia will be receiving a Christmas card from the Kudermetova family this year. After beginning with a win over Ajla Tomljanovic, Maia has beaten Polina Kudermetova and then her older sister Veronika.

Maia has won 11 of her last 13 matches and we tip her to win this final.