Jelena Ostapenko vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Linz

Prediction published on 02/02/2024, 15:12  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 02/02/2024 at 16:13 in Tennis Predictions

Top seed Jelena Ostapenko bids to reach her second final of the year. To get to the title decider in the Upper Austria Linz Open, the Latvian needs to beat unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The winner of this match will take on either second seed Ekaterina Alexandrova or third seeded Donna Vekic in the final of this indoor hard court tournament. Ostapenko has won one tournament already this year, winning the Adelaide Intenational in January.  At the start of this tournament Ostapenko was ranked 12th and is up a place in the live rankings. In the Live WTA Race, the 26-year-old is fourth and will move into third if winning this match. It didn't start well for her in this tournament as she lost the first set of her second round match against Clara Tauson but recovered to get the win. In the last eight Ostapenko beat qualifier Jodie Burrage for the loss of only three games.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was in 42nd position when this tournament began. Reaching the last four has taken her up to 34th and making the final can take her to 31st. Pavlyuchenkova is in her first semi-final of the new year. Her previous best performance in 2024 was getting to the last eight of the Adelaide tournament that was eventually won by her opponent in this match. The 32-year-old doesn't have a good record against Ostapenko. Only one of their five previous meetings has been won by her with the last three being lost. To get to this semi-final Pavlyuchenkova has won three matches without dropping a set. The quarter finals saw her beat fourth seed Elise Mertens. Ostapenko looks in the better fom and can win this match.