Ashleigh Barty vs Petra Kvitová Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Australian Open

Prediction published on 27/01/2020, 13:23  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 27/01/2020 at 14:24 in Tennis Predictions

Number one seed Ashleigh Barty continues her bid to win the Australian Open for the first time. The Australian's best previous effort in her home Grand Slam has been a quarter final last year, the only other time she has made it past the third round. Barty won the French Open last year but that and her last eight appearance here in 2019 are the only two previous times she has reached the last eight in a Grand Slam, not quite the form of a world number one. Her new year began with a loss to Jennifer Brady in Brisbane but she showed her form by winning the Adelaide International. In this tournament, Barty got off to a slow start having to come from a set down in the first round to get past Lesia Tsurenko. Two straight set wins followed, including a win over number 29 seed Elena Rybakina before defeating Allison Riske (seeded 18th) in three sets in the fourth round.

Petra Kvitova is the seventh seed and made it all the way to the final last year losing to Naomi Osaka in three sets. Before that, Kvitova had reached the last four in 2012 but then won four matches in the next five appearances. Her form in Grand Slam tournaments was poor for the rest of 2019 with her best performance being a fourth round at Wimbledon, the tournament in which she has enjoyed the most success. In her last 19 Grand Slam events leadinng up to this tournament, Kvitova has only reached the last eight in three of them. Kvitova won her first three rounds here in straight sets but then had to come from a set down to beat Maria Sakkari (seeded 22nd) in the last 32. The Czech has won four of her seven previous matches against Barty but the last three hava all been won by the Australian, the most recent being at the WTA Tour finals last year. Barty can continue her dominance and get the win in this quarter final.