Paula Badosa vs Daria Kasatkina Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Ningbo Open

Prediction published on 18/10/2024, 13:13  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 18/10/2024 at 14:18 in Tennis Predictions

The two remaining seeds in the  hard court Ningbo Open meet in the semi-final. Fifth seed Daria Kasatkina takes on the eighth-seeded and in-form Paula Badosa. Who will reach the final? Here's our match prediction.

Paula Badosa has been in excellent form in the past few months. In August, the Spaniard was down at 62nd in the rankings but is now 14th. A win over Kasatkina will take her to 12th in the rankings.

This is the fourth successive hard court tournament in which Badosa has made it to at least the quarter-finals and this is her third semi-final. Her last final was in August when the  26-year-old won the Washington hard court title. Three matches have been won by Badosa this week in Ningbo. Only Wang Xiyu has been able to take a set off her.

The quarter-finals saw Badosa defeat sixth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia for the loss of five games. Unseeded opposition will be met in the final with the winner here facing either Karolina Muchova or Mirra Andreeva.

Daria Kasatina was 11th in the last ranking list but is up to tenth thanks to this run to the semi-final. The Russian is also tenth in the WTA Live Race and in with a chance of making it into the end-of-season Tour Finals.

Kasatkina reached the final in Korea last month but had failed to get past the last 16 in the two tournaments that followed. Better form has been shown in Ningbo with wins over Katerina Sianakova and unseeded Yulia Putintseva.

Three sets were needed in both matches with a set lost 6-1 in those matches. Kasatkina trails Badosa 3-2 in previous meetings and has lost their last two matches. We tip Badosa to win in straight sets.