Coco Vandeweghe vs Karolina Pliskova Tennis Prediction
Pliskova, who trails the H2H against Vandeweghe by 2-3, lost their last meeting at the 2017 US Open. However, the Czech did beat the American at Stuttgart a year ago (7-6 6-4). The fact that this is an indoor event and Stuttgart clay being faster than regular clay works for both players, who are big servers and hard-hitters. Pliskova may well be the favorite, but only by a slight margin.
Karolina Pliskova News
Karolina Pliskova sails into the first WTA final of her season, after brushing aside Anett Kontaveit in 65 minutes (6-4 6-2). The Czech, with accurate serving and clean ball-striking, struck 22 winners, including six aces, while committing just six unforced errors.
Pliskova, whose previous two Stuttgart campaigns ended with quarterfinal losses (2017, Siegemund and 2016, Radwanska), won this week’s quarterfinal by defeating the reigning French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in two hours and 18 minutes.
After finishing as the runner-up at the US Open in 2016, Pliskova ended that season inside top 10 for the first time in her career. Less than a year later, Pliskova became the world #1 by winning three WTA Premier titles in 2017, at Brisbane, Doha, and Eastbourne.
The best slam run Pliskova has put forward since 2017 is the semifinal at the French Open, (l. to Halep). The Czech has reached two International clay finals in her career, 2015 Prague (def. Hradecka) and 2014 Nuremberg (l. to Bouchard).
So far in 2018, Pliskova has reached quarterfinal or better stages in seven out of the eight tournaments that she entered, including at Australian Open (l. to Halep), Indian Wells (l. to eventual champion Osaka) and Miami (l. to former champion Azarenka).
Coco Vandeweghe News
Coco Vandeweghe rolls over a dispirited Caroline Garcia in an hour and 14 minutes to enter her first clay final (at all levels). The American, who also breezed past #1 Halep (6-4 6-1) and #9 Stephens (6-1 6-0), has never even played an ITF final on clay.
The only real test Vandeweghe had to go through this week came from the defending champion Siegemund, who was playing just her third WTA tournament amid comeback from a career-threatening ACL injury. That match lasted two hours and 27 minutes.
Vandeweghe, a top 40 player since 2014, achieved the next level of breakthrough results in 2017. She made semifinals at the Australian (l V. Williams) and US Open (l. Keys), with a quarterfinal at Wimbledon (l. Rybarikova).
These results made Vandeweghe a top 10 player in last November, soon after her debut appearance at the WTA Elite Trophy, Zhuhai (l, to Goerges). The cherry on top was when she traveled to Minsk and defeated Belarus to win the Fed Cup title.
No American has won this tournament (Stuttgart) since Lindsay Davenport did so during 2004-05. While on the Czech side, Hana Mandlikova is the last one to reach a final in 1986.
Tennis Prediction: Coco Vandeweghe to win
Odds: 2.15
