Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic will contest the final of the 2014 Toray Pan Pacific Open.  It has been another great week in Tokyo and the draw has held up surprisingly well.  Wozniacki was first into the final with a 6-4 2-6 6-2 victory over Garbine Muguruza.  This was Caroline’s first win over Muguruza in three attempts and continues her excellent recent form.  Wozniacki has won 28 of her last 34 matches and three of those losses came against the world number one, Serena Williams.  Random question… does anyone dream scorelines? I woke up at 5am, checked the score (which was one set all), went back to sleep and dreamt that Muguruza won 7-5 in the decider… my dream predictions are ALWAYS wrong.

If Mr Mountain said it was great, it was GREAT.

In the second of the semi-finals, Ana Ivanovic defeated Angelique Kerber in a tight two setter, 7-5 6-3.  Kerber served for the first set and had many chances to win it.  She hit two poor errors to gift the break back and it’s not the first time this happened to poor Angie.  Credit to Ivanovic though who cleaned up her game in a big way after an error-strewn start.  There were a handful of fabulous rallies, but once Ivanovic bagged the first set, the writing was on the wall.  Ivanovic closed out both sets in remarkably convincing fashion with a string of flashy winners.

The prospect of a Wozniacki v Ivanovic final is tantalising.  Ivanovic leads the H2H 4-2 and won their most recent match in the semi-finals of Monterrey, 7-6(5) 6-4.  In terms of form, I think Ivanovic has played the better tennis this week.  She was very emotional in her semi-final with Kerber with fist pumps after soooo many points.  Although Kerber stayed with her reasonably well in the second set, I think Wozniacki will be a tougher opponent in terms of staying power.  When Wozniacki was world number one, she was one of the best competitors on tour.  Even when she playing poorly she was always there and I believe that kind of mentality is starting to return.

I’m on the fence again.  I know, I know, I am always on the fence, but this IS a tough one to call because both are obviously playing well and the H2H is reasonably level with the pair splitting their last four matches.  I’m going to honour my original prediction pre-tournament.  Interestingly, the pair have never played a three setter in six previous encounters.  Perhaps this time?

Prediction: Wozniacki d. Ivanovic in 3 sets

WTA Seoul Final Prediction

Karolina Pliskova d. Varvara Lepchenko in 3 sets

Saturday’s Poll Results: 54% correctly predicted that Wozniacki would beat Muguruza and 76% correctly predicted that Ivanovic would beat Kerber.

Photo in this post by Omar Boraby