Maria Sakkari vs Anett Kontaveit Prediction & Betting Tips - St. Petersburg, Russia

Prediction published on 12/02/2022, 14:54  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 12/02/2022 at 15:59 in Tennis Predictions

The St Petersburg Ladies' Trophy Final is a bit of a rarity. Top seed Maria Sakkari is up against Anett Kontaveit, who is seeded second. No outsiders in the final this time around but that nearly wasn't the case. Sakkari had to go to three sets to get past unseeded Irina-Camelia Begu in Saturday's semi-final. The Greek world number seven (sixth if winning this match) has only won one WTA Tour tournament. That was on clay in 2019 and this is only her second final since then. This is her third tournament of the year, the other two seeing her knocked out at the last 16 stage. This week has seen her beat Anastasia Potapova, Ekaterina Alexandrova and eighth seed Elise Mertens, all in straight sets before the tougher semi-final. This pair have met 12 times in the past with both winning six. 2021 saw them face each other five times with Kontaveit winning three, including the last two.

Anett Kontaveit had an incredible final four months of 2021, winning four titles, all in indoor hard court events. The year ended with defeat in the final of the Tour Finals tournament. Her aim this year will be to transfer that success to Grand Slam events, having only made one quarter final in a career that began eight years ago. Those title wins have seen her climb up to ninth in the world rankings but eighth in the liver rankings. Winning this final will see her rise to a career high sixth. One semi-final has already been reached this year and now she bids to win her first title of the year. Wins have come this week against Jil Tiechmann, Sorana Cirstea, fifth seed Belinda Bencic and then the seventh seeded Jelena Ostapenko in the semi-final. Kontaveit is yet to drop a set this week and can beat Sakkari to win yet another title.