Elise Mertens vs Daria Gavrilova Prediction & Betting Tips - Hobart International

Prediction published on 11/01/2024, 06:56  by Daniel Ngulu in Tennis Predictions

Top seed Elise Mertens is through to another Hobart semifinal and will battle the wildcard Daria Saville. The winner will then set up a showdown in the final with either Emma Navarro or Yuan Yue. Elise Mertens is a two-time Hobart champion. She won the title in back-to-back years with the last coming in 2018. Having never lost a semifinal here, the Belgian will be confident of progressing to yet another final. Advancing to this round has moved the former world number 12 up one place to 28th in the live ranking. Mertens, who is yet to drop a set in this tournament, defeated Arantxa Rus by the loss of five games in the quarterfinals. The 28-year-old has defeated Saville four times in their six previous encounters.

Daria Saville has won one of the last two most recent meetings with Mertens. She will be hoping for another similar outcome as she targets her first tour final in two years. The Australian has played five matches so far in 2024 and has won four times. Three of those wins have come in Hobart where she is making her main draw debut. She has defeated two seeded players on her way to this round and will be highly confident of upsetting the highly favoured Mertens. Saville defeated third seed Zhu Lin in three sets in the quarterfinals. Before that, sixth seed and former champion Sofia Kenin was defeated in straight sets. Advancing to this round has catapulted the Australian number-five a massive 43 places in the live ranking to 152nd.