Maria Sakkari and Aryna Sabalenka meet in the semifinal of the 2023 tennis Madrid Open. Let’s preview this game and give out a pick and prediction.
Maria Sakkari is coming off a 3 sets win over Irina-Camelia Begu that took 31 games to decide. In the victory, Sakkari won 60 percent of her first serve points and 53 percent of her second serve points. Sakkari won 57 percent of her total service points and converted on 8 of her 21 break points. Sakkari got 58 percent of her first serves in play and hit 4 aces. Sakkari has won 8 of her last 10 matches that have gone the distance. Sakkari looks to make her eighth career final overall and her third career WTA 1000 final. Sakkari is 2-5 in career WTA 1000 semifinal matches. Sakkari won 7 of her last 10 matches on clay court.
Aryna Sabalenka is coming off a 3 sets win over Grigor Dimitrov that took 23 games to decide. In the victory, Sabalenka won 69 percent of her first serve points and 41 percent of her second serve points. Sabalenka won 56 percent of her total service points and converted on 6 of her 9 break points. Sabalenka got 54 percent of her first serves in play and hit 2 aces. Sabalenka has won 5 of her last 6 matches that have gone the distance. Sabalenka looks to make her 23rd career final overall and her fourth WTA 1000 final. Sabalenka is 3-0 in career WTA 1000 semifinal matches. Sabalenka has won 8 of her last 10 matches on clay court.
Sabalenka has won 5 of the 9 meetings against Sakkari, including the most recent match this year in Indian Wells. Sakkari’s most recent win came last year in Fort Worth. Six of the meetings were decided in straight sets. This will be the first match on clay.
Sakkari has had success against Sabalenka, and getting more than two times your money with a top-10 player is attractive. However, this is the most consistent and dominant version we’ve seen of Sabalenka and that bodes well heading into this match.
Give me Sabalenka in straight sets to shave the juice.