Petra Kvitová vs Sorana Cirstea Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Miami

Prediction published on 31/03/2023, 03:30  by Devesh Jaganath in Tennis Predictions

Rivals Petra Kvitova and Sorana Cirstea will lock horns for the 11th time in their professional careers at the Miami Open semi-final, scheduled to get underway on Friday evening. At 33 years of age, Petra Kvitova is still a force to be reckoned with in the WTA and has had another solid start in 2023. The Czech has consistently made it to the latter stages of tournaments though this will be her best result of the season, having failed to get past the quarter-final stage on two previous occasions this year. Her most recent quarter-final appearance came earlier this month at the Indian Wells Masters, where she beat Jessica Pegula in the round of 16 but fell to Maria Sakkari in the final 8. Here in Miami, Kvitova beat Linda Noska, Donna Vehkic, and Varvana Gracheva, in straight sets in the earlier rounds and then put on a resilient display against Ekaterina Alexandrova, besting the Russian (6-4, 3-6, 6-3). Kvitova leads the head-to-head record 6-4 and will be hoping to extend that en route to her first final appearance of the year. 

Sorana Cristea has fallen some way from her peak rank of 21 a decade ago and is now 74th in the world, but is as good as any on her day. The Romanian’s year got off to a poor start with first-round exits at the Australian Open, the Abu Dhabi Open, and in Doha. However, since the start of March, Cristea seems to have found her rhythm again. At Indian Wells, Cristea looked excellent and recorded a couple of big upsets, most notably over Madison Keys and Caroline Garcia (6-2, 6-3) in the round of 16. Unfortunately, she was drawn against Iga Swiatek in the quarter-final and was outplayed by the Pole. Her route to the semi-final in this tournament included another win over Caroline Garcia, but possibly her best performance of the year to date came in the quarter-final, where she beat Aryna Sabalenka (6-4, 6-4). With the form she’s in, Cirstea will be quietly confident that she can cause another upset in this one.