The biggest indoor hard event on the WTA Tour calendar, the 2024 Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open is entering its crucial stages. Three of the top four seeds have managed to reach the semifinals, ensuring some cracking matchups as the tournament is coming to a close. Who do you think will make the final?
WTA Linz Semifinal Predictions
Donna Vekic vs Ekaterina Alexandrova
Head-to-head: Vekic 2-1
Donna Vekic hadn’t been too impressive recently so these two straightforward wins already mean a lot here (she did have a bit of a wobble in the second set against Clara Burel, but still closed out in two). She leads the head-to-head over Ekaterina Alexandrova with all three meetings coming indoors, but the only relatively recent one was actually on the clay courts in Stuttgart.
Alexandrova has just taken out the defending champion Anastasia Potapova and showed glimpses of stronger form this year, but also fell in the Australian Open round one and is generally a less consistent player than Vekic. Her flat-hitting tends to be extremely dangerous under the roof though with the perfect conditions (unhampered by wind or sun), allowing her to take the ball early on a more regular basis. She might deserve the slightest of nods here.
Prediction: Alexandrova in 3
Jelena Ostapenko vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Head-to-head: Ostapenko 5-1
Jelena Ostapenko almost went out in Round 2 here, but that was rather a reflection of how good Clara Tauson is than her poor form. Over the past year or so, the Latvian has been able to cut down on the number of unnecessary losses and has been able to bring in wins quite regularly. She hasn’t done it by changing up her playstyle too much, but she’s been performing extremely strongly on return to make this possible.
Players like Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova can often trouble Ostapenko, because their heavy hitting on both wings can make it hard for the Latvian to maintain her usual timing advantage. But somehow, this hasn’t been the case in this particular rivalry over the years. Maybe it’s just one of these that work in theory but that edge doesn’t result in anything on the court. After all, Ostapenko’s offense is still very hard to contain when she’s on.
Prediction: Ostapenko in 3
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