Anna Kalinskaya and Kaia Kanepi meet in the quarterfinal of the 2022 tennis Citi Open.
Anna Kalinskaya is coming off a straight set win over Simona Halep that took 14 games to decide. In the victory, Kalinskaya won 86 percent of her first serve points and 38 percent of her second serve points. Kalinskaya won 62 percent of her total service points and converted on 4 of her 4 break points. Kalinskaya got 50 percent of her first serves in play in a match where Halep retired early in the second set. Despite the victory, Kalinskaya has to be sharper with her serve, as Halep clearly wasn’t feeling right and still had 7 chances to break. Kalinskaya looks to win 3 straight matches for the first time since Guadalajara in February. Kalinskaya has won 6 straight matches on hard court.
Kaia Kanepi is coming off a 3 sets win over Lin Zhu that took 30 games to decide. In the victory, Kanepi won 74 percent of her first serve points and 41 percent of her second serve points. Kanepi won 60 percent of her total service points and converted on 5 of her 15 break points. Kanepi got 58 percent of her first serves in play and hit 11 aces. Kanepi has hit 18 aces in her first 2 matches, and 4 of her last 6 matches have gone the distance. Kanepi looks to win 3 straight matches on the main tour for the first time since making the quarterfinals in the Australian Open. Kanepi has won 6 of her last 8 matches on hard court.
There’s no match history between these 2 players.
Kalinskaya has to have another level of confidence after her recent effort, but her shaky serve is going to be trouble here if it continues. Kanepi is piling up the free points, and she has a feisty return that will capitalize if given so many looks at a break. I believe Kanepi is the easier player to trust in this spot.
I like Kanepi to make the semis.