The most intriguing of Sunday’s three finals will be in Istanbul where the top two seeds (wow) have progressed through to the showpiece finale.  Caroline Wozniacki and Roberta Vinci have both looked in great form so far this week; Wozniacki has lost two sets through the tournament to Karin Knapp (4-6 6-2 6-1 in the second round) and Karolina Pliskova (6-1 3-6 6-2).  These two wins were sandwiched by straight set wins over Belinda Bencic and Kristina Mladenovic.  I like the way Wozniacki has been playing this week, particularly on serve where she has been very efficient.

After a pretty woeful 2014, Vinci has made back-to-back finals in Bucharest and now Istanbul.  Her last two performances have been extremely impressive.  In the quarter-finals, she dismantled Kurumi Nara‘s game with a 6-0 6-2 victory.  In the semi-finals, she faced more opposition from the supremely talented, Ana Konjuh; however the Croatian teen ran out of gas after a series of leghty and drawn-out three setters and Vinci came through, 6-4 6-2.  The Italian player has been serving well, much like Wozniacki, and causing all kinds of problems with her accurate backhand slice.  This surface suits her game and now she seems to have restored some confidence, that’s a pretty good match.

Wozniacki and Vinci have played each other three times with Vinci winning two of those clashes including the most recent one in Madrid, 6-3 6-3.  Wozniacki wasn’t 100% fit in Madrid, but this is a pretty good match-up for Vinci.  In my original predictions, I went for Wozniacki to win and have been championing her for the win all week.  However Vinci’s performances this week cannot be ignored.  I think it will be a high quality final and i’m going for Vinci to edge it.

Prediction: Vinci d. Wozniacki in 3 sets

I spoke a little bit about the Bastad final, which will be played between Mona Barthel and Chanelle Scheepers, in my recap of Barthel’s semi-final win HERE.  I’m going for Mona in three nervewracking sets.  In the Hamburg final, David Ferrer should have too much game  for Leonardo Mayer.