Simona Halep vs. Karolina Pliskova 9/21/20 Rome Open Tennis Pick, Odds, and Prediction
2020-09-21 00:00:00 EDT
Simona Halep meets the defending champion, Karolina Pliskova, in what is going to be one of the most exciting finals in Rome for many years. Will Halep continue her unbeaten run in 2020, or will Pliskova be able to break through her defensive abilities and retain her title?
Karolina Pliskova came through an easy semifinal match against Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets to book her spot in the final here. Looking at that match, I can’t really say that Pliskova won it, more that she was handed the victory by Vondrousova who really did not have a good match as she was just hitting unforced errors off of easy shots. Pliskova will still think she deserved the victory and now be focused on the task at hand, retaining her title. Pliskova has a great serve, but when that is not firing, it is hard for her to compete as well as she would like to. Against the defensive abilities of Halep, she might find it hard to play her game.
Simona Halep has been superb all tournament, and she has shown us that defense wins championships. Halep can return basically any ball and she did it so well yesterday against Garbina Muguruza to win that extremely tight match in 3 sets. Halep is unbeaten this year at 14-0 and she definitely looks the favourite in the final, especially as clay is her favourite surface. Halep knows she has to make sure her game is consistent throughout the final if she is not to be upset.
This is going to be the 12th meeting between both players, with Halep leading the head to head 7-4. Pliskova is of course the defending champion and a lot of respect should be put on her name. However, she has not impressed me too much this tournament. Halep, on the other hand, has played incredibly well all tournament, defending and returning amazing shots. Halep loves playing on clay and she will be so determined and fiery to win the title here on Monday. I expect it might be a 3-setter, but Halep should come through.