Maria Sakkari vs Petra Kvitova Prediction: Making of an intense battle

The Professional tennis scene is a busy one and every week or so we jump into a new tournament. We see the biggest viewership when it comes to the Grand Slams but there are some tournaments that have the same playing field. One of these tournaments is the Indian Wells Masters. In this Indian Wells Open game, Maria Sakkari is going to take on Petra Kvitova.

Maria comes into the game after defeating Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the Round of 16. Maria didn’t really have a clean game, committing nine double-faults and registering just a 57% first serve. Thus, she was thoroughly outplayed in terms of service points, trailing 52:71 in that regard. Therefore, she had to display next-level focus in terms of the return game and ended up with a 66-41 receiving points edge. Maria has had to fight it out thus far in the tournament and all her games have required a third set. She has had a tough draw and once again is in danger of getting out during the pre-Semis or the Semis stage

Kvitova comes into the affair after an exciting 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 win against power-hitter Jessica Pegula. The tie-breaker went to the crunch time and Kvitova had to nail 11 points to nab a win. Like Sakkari, Petra also struggled in terms of her service and had eight double faults and a sub-par first serve percentage of 57. Like Sakkari, she was outplayed in terms of service points, trailing 51-60 whereas in terms of her return game, she had a 44-35 receiving points edge. Kvitova also played a close three-set battle in the Round of 32 against Jelena Ostapenko. Kvitova has not made a deep run ever since her rousing run last year. 

Sakkari and Petra have met seven times and Sakkari has a 4-3 edge in the h2h. Sakkari won 6-3, 6-0 the last time they met and it was during last year’s Indian Wells Masters. Maria has a two-game winning streak over Petra.

The h2h favors Sakkari and she has the recent edge over the veteran. This can be a close game considering the grinding nature and also the flailing service game. I see a three-set battle with Petra ultimately closing it out.