Caroline Garcia vs Maria Sakkari Prediction & Betting Tips - Japan Open

Prediction published on 28/09/2023, 11:18  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 28/09/2023 at 20:00 in Tennis Predictions

The bottom half of the Toray Pan Pacific Open is a highly competitive one. All four seeds in this hard court tournament in Tokyo have qualified. In this match, fourth seed Maria Sakkari faces the fifth seed Caroline Garcia. The winner will be up against either second seed Jessica Pegula or sixth seed Daria Kasatkina in the last four. This match is a repeat of last week's Guadalajara semi-final. Sakkari won that for the loss of just three games (all in the first set) and went on to win the final. That was her second win over Garcia this year, both on hard courts. The Greek is back up to sixth in the world rankings and ninth in the Live WTA Race. That's just one place below the final qualifying position for the end-of-season Tour Finals. Her good form has continued in Tokyo with a straight sets win in round two over Misaki Doi,

World number 10 Caroline Garcia will be out for some revenge here. The French player is only 20th in the WTA Live Race and that's a strong indication of her inconsistent year. Before the Guadalajara tournament last week she'd lost three of her last four matches. This is the third successive tournament in which Garcia made it to the last eight. Some of that consistency is coming back therefore but in two of those events only one match was needed to be won to get to the last eight. This week has been an example of that and her win came against unseeded Anhelina Kalinina in straight sets. Garcia hasn't beaten a top ten ranked player this year (after beating four in last year's Tour Finals) and that run looks like continuing here. We tip the in-form Sakkari to get the win.