Saturday, 20 October 2012

WTA Moscow/Luxembourg: Final Predictions

Caroline Wozniacki v Sam Stosur (Moscow)
Caroline Wozniacki and Sam Stosur set up an all-star final in Moscow with both recording battling three set semi-final wins.  Wozniacki struggled once again to close her match out with Sofia Arvidsson; yesterday she twice failed to serve the match out against Dominika Cibulkova and today suffered the same fate in both the second and third sets before eventually breaking Arvidsson for a 6-4 6-7 6-4 victory.  Stosur lost the opening set to Ana Ivanovic but rebounded strongly to take the match, 2-6 6-3 6-2 as Ivanovic struggled with a hip injury. 

Wozniacki and Stosur have not played each other since the 2010 Season-Ending-Championships where Stosur won comfortably in straight sets.  Three of their five previous encounters have gone to three sets and I think this will be a really close call.  Stosur has really struggled to notch up the title wins and although Wozniacki has struggled in closing out matches this week, I think she will tough this one out...

Prediction - Wozniacki to beat Stosur in 3 sets

Monica Niculescu v Venus Williams (Luxembourg)
It has been a tough year for Venus Williams, but she is ending it on a real high as she has advanced to her first final of 2012.  She got away with a whopping 15 double faults to beat Andrea Petkovic in an absolute epic, 5-7 6-4 6-4.  Venus wasted set points in the opening set, but also came back from a 2-0 deficit in a crazy rollercoaster of a match. 

She now takes on Monica Niculescu who has done the unthinkable and defended her final points from last year.  I say unthinkable because her form throughout the whole of 2012 has been pretty shoddy.  Following comfortable wins over Julia Goerges and Lucie Hradecka, she eased past a disappointing Daniela Hantuchova, 6-1 6-3.  Niculescu is the favourite based on their form throughout the tournament, but you cannot count Venus out who I think will butcher the Niculescu second serve and use her wealth of experience to deal with Niculescu's junk... 

Prediction - Venus to beat Niculescu in 2 tight sets

I had a pretty bad week overall for predictions although my predicted title winners (Wozniacki and Venus) are still alive!!!

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