Barty vs Pavlyuchenkova 25/05/2018

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Ashleigh Barty vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Tennis Prediction

Barty will be the slight favorite in this clash, considering she has been more consistent this season than the Russian. Pavlyuchenkova leads the overall head-to-head by 2-1. However, both of her wins over Barty came in 2013 before the Aussie’s rise. Moreover, the top-seed has won their latest meeting at the 2017 WTA Elite Trophy in straight sets.

Ashleigh Barty News

Top seed Ashleigh Barty, who reached the quarterfinals of Strasbourg as a qualifier last year, has improved her best result at the tournament to at least a semifinal with a straight-set win over Qiang Wang (7-5 6-4). This will be her first tour-level semifinal on clay.
Barty fired 30 winners at the Chinese throughout the 88-minute encounter. Apart from getting broken once in the second set and a couple of deuce service games, the world #17 never looked to be in trouble on her serve, winning 82% on first and 62% on second.
In fact, the Aussie’s strong serving performance has been the case throughout the week. During her straight-set wins over #98 Luksika Kumkhum (6-4 6-4) and #75 Pauline Parmentier (6-1 6-4), she did not drop her serve even once (saved six break points).
2017 Kuala Lumpur winner Barty has reached three finals in the last twelve months, losing all three (Birmingham, Wuhan, Sydney). She is bidding to become the fourth Aussie to reach a Strasbourg final, with compatriot Stosur being a two-time champion (2015, 2017).

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova News

Third seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who arrived at Strasbourg without a single straight-set win in the season, has registered three such wins this week, defeating Tatjana Maria, Natalia Vikhlyantseva, and Zarina Diyas to reach her first semifinal of the season.
Pavlyuchenkova had a very slow start to the season, going 5/10 in the first five months, with the worst loss-by-ranking coming at the Indian Wells against American teenager and world #149 Amanda Anisimova (6-4 6-1 in 60 minutes).
In contrast, the former world #13 had a successful season last year, by winning titles at Monterrey, Rabat and Hong Kong, making the quarterfinal at the Australian Open and her career’s first top 15 season finish.
Nonetheless, this week Pavlyuchenkova has a chance to advance into her 18th career final (third on clay) and become the third Russian finalist at Strasbourg, after Maria Sharapova (champion, 2010) and Elena Likhovtseva (runner-up, 1999).