Aryna Sabalenka vs Elena Rybakina Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Qatar Open

Prediction published on 01/11/2023, 14:13  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 02/11/2023 at 13:25 in WTA Qatar Open Prediction

Aryna Sabalenka's position as world number one will be under serious threat if losing against Elena Rybakina. The top seed won her first match in these WTA Tour Finals, beating Maria Sakkari for the loss of only one game. That was despite her misgivings about the venue this hard court tournament is being held at. Her second match was against Jessica Pegula and Sabalenka was beaten by the American in straight sets. Now she goes into her final match knowing that with Pegula already in the last four, Sabalenka will need to beat Rybakina to join her. Failure to get out of the Bacolor Group will mean Iga Swiatek can regain her world number one ranking if winning the title. Sabalenka beat Rybakina in this year's Australian Open final, but lost to her in the recent China Open.

Elena Rybakina's Tour Finals got off to a poor start when being beaten by Jessica Pegula. Like Sabalenka, she only won seven games against the American. The 24-year-old then boosted her chances of making it to the semi-final when beating Maria Sakkari in a bizarre match. Rybakina won the first set to love (meaning Sakkari had won one game in three sets in this tournament) but the Greek player levelled the scores, winning set two on a tie-break. The final set also went to a tie-break but Rybakina won that to knock Sakkari out of the tournament. Rybakina still has a chance of ending the year in third place and will get into the last four if beating Sabalenka. We go for over 21.5 games to be played in this match.