Donna Vekić vs Ekaterina Alexandrova Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Linz

Prediction published on 02/02/2024, 14:44  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 03/02/2024 at 00:00 in Tennis Predictions

Second seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova takes on third seeded Donna Vekic for a place in the Upper Austria Linz Open final. The winner will face either top seed Jelena Ostapenko or unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Sunday's title decider. Alexandrova began this indoor hard court tournament ranked 21st but was a career high 16th in February of last year. Her run to this semi-final has seen her climb to 19th in the live list. 2024 has so far been an up and down year for the Russian. There have been two first round exits, including the Australian Open. Her other tournament before this week saw her get to the last four in Adelaide. That week saw her beat Elena Rybakina but lose the final to Jelena Ostapenko, who she could meet in the title decider here. Alexandrova is yet to drop a set in this tournament with only 11 games lost. Six of those were in the first set of her quarter final against fifth seed Anastasia Potapova.

Donna Vekic has risen from 34th to 29th in the live rankings. A win over Alexandrova will take her up to 25th. This is her fourth match against her opponent and the Croatian leads 2-1. It's 1-1 on hard courts with the only win for Vekic being back in 2017. The 27-year-old won both of her matches when playing in the United Cup for Croatia. It didn't go quite so well in the Australian Open when losng to possible opponent in the final Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets  A return to form has been shown this week in LInz with only two games lost when beating wild card Dayana Yastremska. Her quarter final saw her win the first set against unseeded Clara Burel to love. The second set was won on a tie-break. We tip Alexandrova to win this match.