Garbiñe Muguruza vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Australian Open

Prediction published on 27/01/2020, 14:48  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 27/01/2020 at 15:48 in Tennis Predictions

Garbine Muguruza had a difficult 2019 but has bounced back to form in the Australian Open reaching the quarter final. The Spaniard takes on  Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for a place in the last four. Muguruza has seen her ranking slip to 32 after a poor year, a big drop for a former world number one just three years ago. There were two first round exits for her in Grand Slam tournaments last year but her best performance was in Australia when reaching the last sixteen. Muguruza got off to a slow start in this tournament failing to win a game in her first set against Shelby Rogers. She made a good comeback though and only lost one game in the next two sets. The third round saw her defeat the fifth seed Elina Svitolona for the loss of just three games. Another top ten seed fell to her in the last 32. Muguruza beat Kiki Bertens in straight sets.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is seeded 30th for this tournament. She has made it to five previous Grand Slam quarter finals but is yet to get past that stage. The Australian Open is her most successful tournament and this is the third time in four years the Russian has made it to the last eight. Last year saw her lose in three sets to Danielle Collins after winning the first set. Her good run in Australia wasn't followed up though with only one win in the other three Grand Slams. In fact, take away her two quarter finals here and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has only won four matches in her last 11 Grand Slam events, there must be something about Australia she loves. So far she has beaten two seeds including the second seed Karolina Pliskova and then Angelique Kerber in the last 16.  This is tough though, Muguruza has won four of their previous meetings and she retired in the match she lost. Muguruza can be backed to win this match and reach the last four.