Elise Mertens vs Anett Kontaveit Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Finals

Prediction published on 22/02/2022, 07:22  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 22/02/2022 at 19:08 in Tennis Predictions

Fourth seeded Anett Kontaveit takes on Elise Mertens (the 16th seed) for a place in the Doha quarter finals. Kontaveit has already won one title this year, being successful in the St Petersburg Ladies' Trophy earlier this month. That was an impressive performance with victories over Jelena Ostapenko (winner in Dubai since), Belinda Bencic and the top seed Maria Sakkari in the final. That was her fifth title since last August and the Estonian also made it to the finals of the WTA Tour Finals. Kontaveit has seen her world ranking climb from 30th to seventh as a result of her impressive run of form.  As well as her success in St Petersburg, Kontaveit also made it to the semi-finals in Sydney in January. One match has been played this week, a straight sets win over Ana Konjuh for the loss of only five games.

Elise Mertens is the world number 26 but up a couple of places in the live rankings. This is her fifth tournamet of the year but so far only one quarter final has been reached. That was in St Petersburg but no player in the top 35 was beaten. Last week saw her lose in the last 32 in Dubai, being beaten by Jil Tiechmann. So far in Doha, Mertens had to go to three sets in the first round, losing the middle set to Jasmine Paolini. That set up a second round match against the defending champion Petra Kvitova. Mertens won the first set 7-5 but her opponent retired in the second set when leading 2-1. Mertens has won three of her four previous matches against Kontaveit but her opponent has greatly improved in recent months. Go for Kontaveit to get the win.