Simona Halep vs Caroline Garcia Tennis Prediction
The pair has met each other four times in the past (all on hard-courts), thrice in the last nine months. Halep leads the overall series by 3-1. Garcia prevailed in the final of 2017 Beijing to record her sole win over the Romanian, while the WTA Finals Round Robin was their last meeting.
Simona Halep News
Simona Halep’s quest to remain the top-ranked player gets a boost after she receives a walkover from Madison Keys in the third round of Rome. She still has to go one round further (in Rome) than the Australian Open champion Wozniacki to defend her rank at the end of this week.
After receiving a first-round bye, Halep had to spend just 59 minutes on the court this week to enter the Rome quarterfinals, as she breezed past the Indian Wells champion Naomi Osaka, who defeated Halep en route to the Premier Mandatory title in March, 6-1 6-0.
Halep entered her first Internazionali BNL d’Italia final last year, defeating the like of Pavlyuchenkova, Bertens, Kontaveit, and Siegemund. She would take the first set off #11 Elina Svitolina in the final but eventually yielded the title after a two-hours clash.
The two-time French Open runner-up started the clay season with a disappointing quarterfinal loss to Coco Vandeweghe at Stuttgart. Next up at Madrid last week, she fell short of her title defense campaign, losing to the former #1 Pliskova in another quarterfinal match.
Caroline Garcia News
Caroline Garcia, who had won just one match in her previous three Rome appearances, moves into the quarterfinal with a straight-set win over the 2017 US Open champion Stephens, 6-1 7-6, taking little more 90 minutes time and saving a set point in the second set.
Garcia started the campaign with another straight-set win over Timea Babos 6-3 6-4 on Wednesday. By making the final this week, she will become the first Frenchwoman to be ranked in top 5 since June 2007 when the two-time Rome champion Mauresmo was ranked #4.
The Beijing-Wuhan champion began the clay season with back-to-back semifinals at Stuttgart (d. Sharapova and Svitolina) and Madrid (d. Suarez Navarro and Goerges). She is bidding for her third consecutive final four appearance, unprecedented in her career.
The top-ranked Frenchwoman is yet to defeat a current world #1, despite getting five attempts. That said, Garcia was 0-3 against top 10 opponents on hard-courts in 2018, but has scored six wins over current and former top 10 players since the start of clay season.
Tennis Prediction: Simona Halep
Odds: 1.48
