Karolina Pliskova vs Naomi Osaka Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Australian Open

Prediction published on 23/01/2019, 14:20  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 23/01/2019 at 15:21 in Tennis Predictions

This is the pick of the Australian Open semi-finals as fourth seed Naomi Osaka takes on Karolina Pliskova who is seeded three places below her. Osaka was probably preparing for a repeat of her notorious US Open final against Serena Williams but Pliskova beat her in the last eight. Before her US Open triumph, she'd never made it past the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament and that was achieved here last year when losing to world number one Simona Halep after beating two seeds. It's not been the easiest of routes to the last four with both her third and fourth round ties going to three sets. Against both Hsieh Su-Wei and Anastasija Sevastova she had to come from a set down. Better form was shown in the quarter finals though beating sixth seed Eliina Svitolina for the loss of just five games.

Karolina Pliskova is the seventh seed and is in only her second Grand Slam semi-final, the other being in Paris in 2017. The last two years have seen her reach the last eight in this tournament losing to Simona Halep last year in straight sets. It's nine years since she won the Girl's Singles at the Australian Open  Including this tournament, Pliskova has reached at least the last eight in Grand Slam tournaments in four out of six. She has won two of three matches against Osaka including beating her in Japan last year. One of her wins came when it was one set each and Osaka retired injured. She had to survive four match points against Serena Williams in the quarters and it'll be interesting to see how much that has taken out of her. This should be a tight game between the two highly-seeding players. Go for Osaka to continue her good run with a win here.