WTA Miami: Quarter Final Predictions

WTA Miami: S.Williams vs Lisicki & Halep vs Stephens

The quarter finals of the top half of the Miami Open will be played today. At the beginning of the week, I correctly predicted that Serena Williams would make the quarter finals (no surprise there) but I didn’t foresee the others backing up their impressive Indian Wells performances quite so effectively. Here are my predictions as to what will happen today.

(Rank/Seed)

(1/1) Serena Williams vs (21/27) Sabine Lisicki

Serena Williams is currently undefeated this year, winning all 15 matches she’s contested and doesn’t seem to have been affected by the knee injury which forced her withdrawal from Indian Wells. So far, the former 7 time Miami champion has barely broken a sweat at the tournament and was all business in taking out 2006 champion, (29/24) Svetlana Kuznetsova 62 63 in the 4th round. Sabine Lisicki has surprised me! Going into Indian Wells, she had won just 1 match in 7 played! I didn’t expect her to back up her semi final showing there with another good result here, but obviously something’s clicked in the German’s game! Her biggest win came in the 3rd round here, when she upset the out of form (6/5) Ana Ivanovic, 76(4) 75. It was a huge win for Sabine, considering she came back from 1-4 down in the 2nd set and had lost her last 3 hard court meetings with Ana since last summer, the last coming just over a month ago in Dubai where Ana won 60 63! This marked the 4th time in 6 events played this year that Ana failed to reach the quarter finals! After that, Sabine emulated her Indian Wells victory over (13/11) Sara Errani, cruising to the quarters by a 61 62 score line.

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Serena leads the head to head 2-1, but the pair haven’t met since Sabine stunned Williams in the 4th round of Wimbledon 2013, ending the 34 match winning streak Serena had compiled at the time. Though this is a match between two of the biggest servers in women’s tennis, Sabine appears to be rolling her serves in lately for some unknown reason. If she is to stand any chance of replicating her past success, she must go for those big boomers! Still, I can’t bet against the 2 time reigning champion as she seems almost unbeatable on these courts. Prediction: Serena Williams

(3/3) Simona Halep vs (45/-) Sloane Stephens

I didn’t think Simona would physically be able to back up her win at Indian Wells this week, but she has done more than prove me wrong! In the 4th round, she defeated (28/15) Flavia Pennetta 63 75 for the first time in 4 career meetings. The result was particularly impressive as she had to recover from 2-5 down in the 2nd set against an opponent who has returned to form lately, considering her wins over Maria Sharapova in Indian Wells and the 2 time former Miami champion, Victoria Azarenka 76(5) 76(6) in the 3rd round here. Stephens is on an even bigger comeback trail. As a former top 20 player, with wins over Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova to her credit, the 22 year old American would have been most disappointed with her year, winning only 2 of 6 matches played going into Indian Wells. However, like Sabine Lisicki, she suddenly found her range in the desert and beat both Angelique Kerber and Svetlana Kuznetsova, before taking a set off of Serena in the 4th round. She’s backed it up here, taking advantage of the unthinkable upset of (7/6) Eugenie Bouchard, who lost out to (113/Q) Tatiana Maria in the 2nd round by a 60 76(4) score line! Sloane has moved through this section of the draw without dropping a set, beating Australian Open semi finalist, (18/17) Madison Keys 64 62 in the 2nd round and fellow Indian Wells 4th rounder, (34/-) Belinda Bencic 64 76(5) in the 4th round.

Halep and Stephens are tied at 2-2 in the head to head, but their only recent meeting came in last year’s French Open, where Halep won 64 63. In a match between two players who can both attack and defend, I expect Halep to be the steadier of the two and extend her winning run. Prediction: Simona Halep

Next: Serena and Maria Set To Be Doubles Partners

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