Moscow, Luxembourg & Stockholm Quarter-Final Preview: Ivanovic-Stosur and more

Yesterday was a struggle to pick out matches to preview, but today is much easier because there are some great potential encounters.

Sam Stosur v Ana Ivanovic (Moscow, QF)

Ana Ivanovic

A quarter-final more fitting of a final will see Moscow's two biggest draws, Sam Stosur and Ana Ivanovic square off in an intriguing match.  Stosur has carried her fine form from Tokyo straight into Moscow where she has enjoyed two comfortable straight set wins over Kaia Kanepi and Alize Cornet.  Ivanovic played her first match today after a strong showing in Linz and was never troubled in passing by Klara Zakopalova, 6-3 6-1.  Stosur leads the head-to-head by 3 wins to 2; the last time they played each other was at this tournament last year where Sammy prevailed in a 3 setter although Ivanovic did seem to pick up an injury in that match.  Both are in good form, but I fancy Ivanovic to prevail...

Prediction - Ivanovic to beat Stosur in 3 sets

Caroline Wozniacki v Bojana Jovanovski (Luxembourg, QF)

Bojana Jovanovski

An interesting quarter-final match awaits Luxembourg tomorrow as Caroline Wozniacki takes on Bojana Jovanovski for the third time this year.  Jovanovski defeated Caro twice on the clay earlier this year including an extraordinary match in Rome where despite being hobbled by injury, she recovered from all manners of deficits to post a 2-6 6-4 7-6(5) victory.  Jovanovski won a few weeks later at Roland Garros in straight sets so this will be a really tough match for Caroline.  

What will go in Wozniacki's favour is she is in much better form these days and is starting to become more aggressive.  She has had 2 solid wins in Luxembourg over Mandy Minella and Monica Niculescu.  Jovanovski herself is playing quite well these days with titles in Tashkent and Ningbo since the US Open, and she took out Francesca Schiavone in the first round.  Jovanovski will have a great deal of confidence from those matches earlier this year, but I think a stronger looking Wozniacki and away from her least favourite surface of clay will she her prevail.

Prediction -Wozniacki to beat Jovanovski in 2 very tight sets

Jerzy Janowicz v Ernests Gulbis (Stockholm, QF)

This match-up was one of my predicted quarter-finals at this year's US Open, but in fact saw both bomb out in the first round.  Ernests Gulbis has won two matches this week including a tough first round encounter with Jeremy Chardy where he was pushed to a third set tiebreak.  Jerzy Janowicz made his return from injury this week after back issues and was throughly convincing in his first match where took less than an hour to demolish Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-1 6-2.  They have played each other 4 times and are tied at 2-2 in the head-to-head with Janowicz winning their last match at Wimbledon which went the full distance.  I was surprised by the scoreline in Janowicz's first match, but I think Gulbis will come through this one.

Prediction - Gulbis to beat Janowicz in 3 sets

Best of the rest: WTA Moscow Quarter-Final Predictions

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to beat Daniela Hantuchova in 2 tight sets

Simona Halep to beat Alisa Kleybanova in 3 sets

Svetlana Kuznetsova to beat Roberta Vinci in 3 sets

Best of the rest: WTA Luxembourg Quarter-Final Predictions

Sabine Lisicki to beat Karin Knapp in 3 sets

Katarzyna Piter to beat Annika Beck in 3 sets

Sloane Stephens to beat Stefanie Voegele in 2 tight sets

Best of the rest: ATP Stockholm Quarter-Final Predictions

David Ferrer to beat Fernando Verdasco in 3 sets

Grigor Dimitrov to beat Kenny De Schepper in 2 sets

Milos Raonic to beat Benoit Paire in 2 tight sets

Best of the rest: ATP Vienna Quarter-Final Predictions

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to beat Dominic Thiem in 2 sets

Fabio Fognini to beat Robin Haase in 2 sets

Ruben Bemelmens to beat Lukas Rosol in 3 sets

Tommy Haas to beat Radek Stepanek in 2 tight sets