Madison Keys vs Paula Badosa Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Australian Open

Prediction published on 21/01/2022, 08:04  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 21/01/2022 at 10:23 in Tennis Predictions

Paula Badosa can climb up to fourth in the live rankings if beating Madison Keys. The Spanish eighth seed was ranked 70th this time last year but has made big strides up the list. This year has already seen her move to sixth in the world after winning the Sydney Tennis Classic. That included impressive wins over Belinda Bencic, Daria Kasatkina and in the final Barbora Krejcikova. Two of her last four tournaments have been won, the other being the Indian Wells event last October. Badosa also made it to the semi-finals of the WTA Finals in November, beating two top ten players. In this tournament, the Spaniard has beaten Anjla Tomljanovic, Martina Trevisan (both in three sets) and then Marta Kostyuk in three sets, losing the middle one. This is her first time in the fourth round of the Australian Open and has only made one Grand Slam quarter final in France last year.

Madison Keys is ranked 51st but was as high as seventh six years ago. On January 10th of this year, Keys was down in 87th place but has seen a big rise in her ranking after winning the second of the tournament held in Adelaide this month. Keys had wins over top 20 players Coco Gauff and Elina Svitolina (both already out of this tournament) before beating Alison Riske in the final for the loss of just three games. That was her first WTA title since winning the Cincinnati Open three years ago. Keys reached the semi-final here in 2015 and this is her first time in the fourth round since 2019. To reach the fourth round this year, Keys has had straight sets wins over Sofia Kenin and Jaqueline Cristian, before a three-setter against Wang Qiang, after dropping the first set, winning the match on a third set tie-break. This is a tougher task, go for Badosa to continue her good form and reach the last eight.