The quarter-finals in Cincy promise to be another great day of WTA tennis.  However i’m disappointed by the scheduling for two reasons: 1) Ivanovic v Svitolina getting the top court OVER Sharapova v Halep?! 2) three of the WTA matches are late so I doubt I’ll get to watch them here in the UK! This is an exciting week as we have pictures from Cincy. This is thanks to Omar Boraby, who is photographing the tournament and has kindly offered them to Moo’s Tennis Blog.  Omar’s photos will be in each of the daily WTA previews up till the final and I will conclude the week with a selection of Omar’s best shots.  I’ll also post some more of Omar’s pictures on my Twitter account @MooTennisBlog.  You can check out Omar’s official website HERE and follow him @PhotographyOmar on Twitter.

1. Maria Sharapova v Simona Halep (WTA Cincy, QF)

Photo by Omar Boraby

A French Open final rematch is all set for Friday as Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep will play each other for a place in the Cincy semi-finals.  Sharapova and Halep last met at Roland Garros with Sharapova prevailing in an tremendous finale, 6-4 6-7(7) 6-4.  It was one of the best Grand Slam finals in recent years and a candidate for match of the year too.  Halep has become a really solid match player and she demonstrated that in her third round victory over Lucie Safarova.  Halep won, 6-4 7-5, winning the last three games of the match and serving it out with confidence.  It’s been a very good start for Halep in Cincy, who has been rusty before when she has taken a long break from the tour.

Sharapova came through an awful match with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-4 7-6(2).  The second set was just a complete mess.  Both players forfeited breaks on double faults in their last service games of the set.  Pavs had so many leads and really should have won a set.  Sharapova was very shaky at times, but somehow managed to grit out the win.  Sharapova leads the H2H with Halep 4-0, but their last two matches, both in finals, have gone the distance.  Sharapova has not been impressive at all since winning the French Open and particularly since Wimbledon.  She hasn’t played well in either of her matches in Cincy.  However, writing off Maria just feels like such an alien concept.

Prediction: Sharapova d. Halep in 3 sets

2. Serena Williams v Jelena Jankovic (WTA Cincy, QF)

Photo by Omar Boraby

Serena-JJ matches are always fun and Cincy has delivered.  Serena Williams needed two tiebreaks to defeat Sam Stosur in a great second round match.  She was extremely efficient in defeating Flavia Pennetta, 6-2 6-2 in one hour to book a quarter-final date with Jelena Jankovic.  JJ faced a Montreal rematch with Sloane Stephens and secured her third consecutive victory over the American, winning in two tight sets, 7-6(4) 6-4.  Sloane failed to serve out the first set at 5-4, meanwhile JJ had a point for *5-2 in the second set before things got close.  Jelena also took a MTO just before she came out to serve the match.  Shockingly, she actually managed to close it out at *5-4.  It was a real shame this match wasn’t streamed.

Serena leads the H2H 9-4; the current world number one has won their last five matches.  Jelena’s won a few sets and generally plays Serena very well.  She didn’t come close though in their last match in Dubai.  I orginally had JJ to beat Serena in my orginal predictions but i’ve got cold feet.  I thought Serena would be tired from Stanford-Montreal and that could still be the case.  The way she defeated Pennetta though was ominous and i’m not sure if we can trust Jelena to pull off what would be a big upset.

Prediction: S.Williams d. Jankovic in 3 sets

3. Ana Ivanovic v Elina Svitolina (WTA Cincy, QF)

Photo by Omar Boraby

Elina Svitolina backed up her win over Petra Kvitova with a three set victory over Carla Suarez Navarro, 4-6 6-4 6-4.  Svitolina is on an eight match winning streak after winning the International event in Baku two weeks ago.  Svitolina is a really solid player, but in my opinion, doesn’t have enough versatility or power in her game to suggest she can be anything more than a top 20 player at best.  Svitolina takes on Ana Ivanovic, who also needed three sets in her third round match.  She recorded her fourth consecutive victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova with a 6-2 2-6 6-3.  Ivanovic has a 4-0 H2H lead over Svitolina although they did play a humdinger in Indian Wells where Ivanovic needed a third set tiebreak to seal the win.  Svitolina’s had a great week, but I think Ivanovic will have too many weapons for her.

Prediction: Ivanovic d. Svitolina in 2 sets

4. Agnieszka Radwanska v Caroline Wozniacki (WTA Cincy, QF)

Photo by Omar Boraby

In the late night match on Thursday, Caroline Wozniacki defeated Angelique Kerber, 7-5 6-2.  I was expecting an awesome match, but it sounded like it didn’t really deliver.  This was a fantastic win for Wozniacki, her first top ten win since Cincy last year.  Wozniacki will take on Montreal champion, Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarter-finals.  Aga thumped Sabine Lisicki, 6-1 6-1, recording her second win in as many weeks against the German player.   In the Woz-Aga head-to-head, Radwanska has won their last three matches.  The last time they played was in Doha in 2013, which Aga won 6-2 7-5.  Radwanska is riding on a pretty hefty cloud of confidence and all the signals would definitely point to Aga.  Of course, i’m ignoring all the signals.

Prediction: Wozniacki d. Radwanska in 2 tight sets

Thursday’s Poll Results: 71% of readers correctly predicted that Halep would beat Safarova, only 51% correctly predicted that Sharapova would beat Pavlyuchenkova, 49% correctly predicted that Jankovic would beat Stephens and 64% correctly predicted that Wozniacki would beat Kerber.