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WTA Tokyo: Final Prediction

By Jake Fletcher

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WTA Tokyo: Can Radwanska halt the Bencic express?

The final has been decided at the 2015 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan.

Agnieszka Radwanska will play Belinda Bencic! Did I predict this? Find out here!

Here’s a look at the final and my prediction as to who will win the title.

(Rank/Seed)

(13/7) Agnieszka Radwanska vs (15/8) Belinda Bencic

Radwanska moved into her 2nd final of the year by beating (48/-) Dominika Cibulkova 64 61 in the semi finals.  From 2-4 down in the 1st set, the Pole would win 10 of the next 11 games as she retrieved ball after ball, routinely retrieving drop shots for her own winners and even passing Cibulkova at the net behind her opponents’ drive volleys. It was Radwanska’s 1st win against the Slovak in 2 years.

The 26 year old hasn’t dropped a set all week, accounting for the likes of (16/-) Elina Svitolina and (11/4) Karolina Pliskova.

The Pole will now contest her 3rd final in Tokyo, after winning the title in 2011 and finishing runner up to Nadia Petrova in 2012.

Bencic is now into her 4th final of the year after continuing her recent domination of (6/1) Caroline Wozniacki in the semi finals. Though Wozniacki looked to out muscle Bencic as she’d done against Angelique Kerber in the quarters, the Swiss often pulled Wozniacki off of the baseline only to then pass or lob her. Bencic looked one step ahead throughout and cruised to a 62 64 win, her 4th in as many attempts against the Dane this year.

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The 18 year old has had a tougher week than Radwanska, dropping the first set against Samantha Stosur and beating two top 10 players in (8/3) Garbine Muguruza and Caroline Wozniacki.

Before this, Bencic had never progressed beyond the 2nd round in Tokyo, losing out to Czech left handers Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Bencic has won her only previous meeting with Radwanska, earlier this year in the final at Eastbourne. On the grass ahead of Wimbledon, Bencic was physically the fresher of the two as she pulled out a 64 46 60 victory to win her 1st career title.

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Radwanska has won 14 of the 21 finals she’s contested, including 9 at the Premier level but hasn’t won a title since Montreal last summer. Bencic is comparatively inexperienced, going 2-2 in the finals she’s played. However, she’s won the last 2 she’s contested, including a huge win at the Premier 5 event in Toronto where she accounted for the likes of Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic.

This match should feature some great crowd pleasing rallies as both players will look to outmanoeuvre the other. With so much on the line in regards to gaining points towards the WTA Finals, both women will naturally be desperate to win the title and bag themselves 470 points.

Given the way Bencic has been handling experienced top players recently, I have to give her the edge. If she wins, she will break the top 10 for the first time.

WTA Tokyo: Final Prediction- Belinda Bencic

Next: WTA Tokyo: Semi Final Predictions

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