Liudmila Samsonova vs Garbiñe Muguruza Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Japan Open

Prediction published on 22/09/2022, 09:16  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 22/09/2022 at 11:15 in Tennis Predictions

It's been a week of shocks in the Toray Pan Pacific Open. Garbine Muguruza is the third seed but the highest remaining in the tournament. Of the eight seeded players, five failed to make it past the second round. Muguruza now takes on the unseeded Liudimila Samsanova in the quarter finals. The winner of this match takes on either Petra Martic or Zhang Shuai in the last four, both of whom are unseeded. Muguruza began this week ranked 12th but a win here will take her back into the top ten. It's not been a good year for the Spaniard and before this week she wasn't even in the top 50 in terms of ranking points earned this year. Her run to the last eight in Tokyo has her up to 47th but there'll be no WTA Tour Finals for her this year. Muguruza only won three Grand Slam matches this year, two of them at the US Open. This is her first quarter final since February when getting to the last eight in Doha. Her only other quarter final before this week was in her first tournament of the year in Sydney.  This week has seen her play just one match so far, winning in straight sets against qualifer Despina Papamichail who began the week ranked 177th.

Liudmila Samsonova has never beaten Garbine Muguruza before. Their only meeting was in the 2021 Australian Open with the Spanish player winning in straight sets. A lot has changed since then with the Russian up to 30th in the rankings. She's won two titles this year with both coming last month. Samsonova was the champion in both Washington and Cleveland and then made it to the fourth round of the US Open, equalling her best ever performance in a Grand Slam tournament. Earlier in the year, Samsonova got to the last four in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, beating Kaolina Pliskova but losing to Iga Swiatek after winning the first set. The first round of this tournament saw her defeat the eighth seed Elena Rybakina and followed that up with a victory over Xin Wang, again without dropping a set. Muguruza may be the highest remaining seed but it's Samsonova who is in the better form. Go for her to win this, have a side bet on there being a tie-break.