Karolina Pliskova vs Petra Martić Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Rome

Prediction published on 14/05/2021, 18:30  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 14/05/2021 at 19:31 in Tennis Predictions

Karolina Pliskova is bidding to make it to her third Rome Masters final in a row. The ninth seed takes on the unseeded Petra Martic for a place in the final. Pliskova won this title in 2019 and was the losing finalist last year. That didn't go to plan, the first set was lost to love and she retired when 2-1 down in the second set. This year has seen Pliskova drop three places in the world ranking to ninth, a win here can take her back up to eighth. This is by far her best performance of the year, there must be something about Rome that she loves. Her run nearly ended in Friday's quarter final as she had to save three match points against Jelena Ostapenko. She survived those to win the second set and then went on to win the match. Before this week she'd only won ten out of 18 matches with two quarter finals.

Petra Martic has also had her struggles this year. The former top 16 player has fallen to 25th but a win here would get her back into the top 20. Her last five tournaments have produced just one victory, so it's a big step forward in terms of form this week. Her previous best this year was a quarter final in the Phillip Island Trophy down under, the players she beat had very low rankings though. There had been no wins in her first two clay court tournaments this year. It nearly became three but she fought back to beat Shelby Rogers in three sets in the first round. The quarter finals saw her beat Jessica Pegula in straight sets. She leads Pliskova 4-2 in previous matches though three of her wins were between 2005 and 2013. Pliskova has won two of the last three but their only clay court match was won by Martic. Pliskova loves it and can get the win to reach another Rome final.