Katerina Siniakova vs Petra Kvitova Tennis Prediction
Kvitova’s 24-match winning streak against fellow Czechs, which dated back to 2012, was broken by Kristyna Pliskova at Charleston last month. Nonetheless, considering Kvitova’s overall record against her compatriots (30-4), she should be able to hold off Siniakova in their first meeting.
Petra Kvitova News
Petra Kvitova displays two flawless performances at J&T Banka Prague Open to the delight of her home crowd as she dismisses Natalia Vikhlyantseva (6-3 6-1) and Tereza Smitkova (6-1 6-3), wrapping up both wins in 125 minutes combined.
This is Kvitova’s third quarterfinal of the season, having converted the previous ones, St. Petersburg and Doha, to titles. She hasn’t won an International tournament since 2011 (Linz), the year she claimed her first Wimbledon title and became a world #1.
Kvitova has reached just seven clay tour-level semifinals in her illustrious career, the last of which came more than two years ago at Stuttgart. Although, she has won Mutua Madrid Open, a Premier Mandatory event, two times in her career (2011 and 2015).
This time last year, Kvitova was preparing to make her return to the tour, six months after suffering the knife attack. Less than a month into her comeback, she would win her first grass title since the 2014 Wimbledon at the Aegon Classic Birmingham.
Katerina Siniakova News
Katerina Siniakova took a longer route to the quarterfinal, as she was forced by Ekaterina Alexandrova to play a decider after leading the second round match by a set and break (6-4 3-6 3-6). The match concluded with both winning exactly the same number of total points (95).
Siniakova started her fourth Prague campaign by securing a 6-2 7-6 win over former #9 Petkovic. This is the third time in 2018 that she has won multiple matches in a week, after Shenzhen final (l. to Halep) and St. Petersburg quarterfinal (l. to Mladenovic).
Siniakova’s best result in this tournament is a semifinal appearance in 2015 (def. Begu, Hercog, and Strycova). The 21-year-old currently has an 8-3 record here, with all losses coming to other Czechs, Hradecka (2015), Pliskova (2016) and Strycova (2017).
Siniakova posted her second top 50 season last year (#49, same as 2016), despite winning 18 fewer tour-level matches than 2016. This became possible as the young Czech claimed her first WTA titles in 2017, Shenzhen (def. Riske) and Bastad (def. Wozniacki).
Tennis Prediction: Petra Kvitova
Odds: 1.35
