Victoria Azarenka vs Jelena Ostapenko Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Indian Wells

Prediction published on 14/10/2021, 15:41  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 14/10/2021 at 18:32 in Tennis Predictions

It's been another surprising women's singles event with only one of the top ten seeds remaining. Victoria Azarenka is seeded 27th and she takes on the 24th seed Jelena Ostapenko in the semi-final. Azarenka has slipped down to 32nd in the rankings but this run at Indian Wells has her at 29th in the live rankings. This is her first semi-final since a grass court tournament held in Berlin four months ago. It's only her third semi-final of an inconsistent year that has also seen injury problems. In this tournament, wins have come against Magda Linette, Petra Kvitova, Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Jessica Pegula. Azarenka has won Indian Wells twice, firstly in 2012 and most recently six years ago.

Jelena Ostapenko has climbed from 44 to 29 in the rankings this year. That's still well below her best of fifth three years ago. Ostapenko didn't reach a quarter final this year until the Rome Masters in May. Her one title of the year came on grass in Eastbourne the following month. September saw her reach the final in Luxembourg but her most recent event saw her lose to Maria Sakkari in the last 16. In this event, Ostapenko has had wins over Hsieh Su-wei, a three-set victory over Yulia Putintseva and then a big straight sets win over second seed Iga Swiatek. The quarter finals saw her beat Shelby Rogers but it took three sets to do so. There's not much between these two players, back Azarenka to get the win, possibly in three sets.