Barbora Krejcikova vs Elena Rybakina Prediction: Another fantastic duel, can Elena advance?

The Ostrava Open has lived up to the expectations and barring a few surprises, the regular heavyweights have made it to the deep rounds. The Main Draw was as good as the Grand Slam one and the tournament really showed us some of the best tennis this year. To add further spice to the proceedings, Barbora Krejcikova will take on Elena Rybakina in the Semi-Finals. 

Krejcikova entered as the favorite against Alycia Parks and won 7-6, 6-3. She continued her immense play against unseeded players and took advantage of the errors committed by aggressive Alycia Parks. Barbora was also doing a great job on the return game so the errors combined with her powerful returns gave her the game. Krejcikova’s serve game itself was a bit off, but she is bound to bounce back sooner than later. Krejcikova didn’t have to play Belinda Bencic in the Round of 16 but she will take all these wins to now the Semis.

Elena continued to sizzle this year and defeated veteran Petra Kvitova 7-6, 6-4. Rybakina’s power game was on point against Kvitova as she nailed 11 Aces and had a superb 84% first serve, winning 71% on her first serve and 90% on her second serve. She pierced through Kvitova’s service and earned a 32-21 receiving points advantage. Elena has learned to survive through long games and that change has been the key reason behind her Grand Slam win during Wimbledon but she looks charged up for more titles here.

Barbora and Elena last played in Grampians Open where Barbora won the tiebreaker.

Barbora and Elena have only met once and it will be interesting to see how Barbora responds to an on-fire Elena whose first serve has been doing much better than Krejcikova’s. Elena has surely hit her stride this season and she can capitalize upon her gains further. I see another grueling three-set mess for Elena but I believe she will survive another one.