Caroline Garcia vs Maria Sakkari Prediction: This can be a heated battle

The WTA Finals have been in a great groove and we have witnessed multiple close battles. Now, we are into a sphere where the knockouts stage is on and three games remain at this point. In this Semis game, Caroline Garcia will take on Maria Sakkari to decide who will go to the Final.

Garcia come into this game after engaging in an intense battle as he defeated Daria Kasatkina 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 in the last game of the Group Stage. Garcia took advantage of eight double-faults by Kasatkina and that dissolved the 61%-71% disadvantage on the first serve for Caroline. Caroline won 10 out of 18 service games and had a 52-43 receiving points advantage and her second set heroics provide the tone for a tiebreaker. Garcia was defeated by Iga Swiatek after opening the campaign with a win against Cori Gauff. How will she respond to an on-song Maria Sakkari.

Sakkari has entered in great rhythm here and was the only player in her Group to win all the games. Winning all your Group games in the WTA Finals denote that you have earned your place here. She is yet to drop a game and she has looked better with each game. She defeated Ons Jabeur 6-2, 6-3, having defeated Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 6-4 in the earlier round. She was taken to the brink by Jessica Pegula but won two tiebreakers in a row to set the tone. After being down for most of the year, Sakkari gathered momentum during Ostrava Open and has built upon it well.

Garcia and Sakkari have met two times with Garcia winning both the matches. They last met during the Cincinnati Masters this year.

Maria’s return game has been amazing and she will need that to combat the strong forehand of Garcia who has looked in amazing touch in the second half of the year. Sakkari is more athletic than Garcia but Caroline has looked amazing even against players that employ a lot of power. The h2h belongs to Sakkari but this can’t be as straightforward as it looks because Caroline has downed some big players recently. Maria’s rhythm will give her an edge here but I believe she will have to grind out a win here. I believe Sakkari will drop her first set of the tournament but will win the game ultimately.