Saturday’s line-up in Brisbane is really quite special; the men’s semi-finals will open up the day session with Milos Raonic taking on Kei Nishikori and Roger Federer playing Grigor Dimitrov. In the evening, the women will take centre stage as the top two seeds, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic battle it out for the first piece of silverware in 2015. Sharapova continued her dominance this week with another straight sets victory in the semi-finals. In her three matches against Yaroslava Shvedova, Carla Suarez Navarro and Elina Svitolina, Sharapova has dropped just nine games.
In contrast. Ivanovic has scrapped her way to the final with wins over Jarmila Gajdosova, Kaia Kanepi and Varvara Lepchenko. If it makes sense, this is even more impressive to me because it has been a trait that has often eluded Ivanovic, winning matches when she’s not been at her best. Against Lepchenko in the semi-finals, she came from 5-3 down in the first set and needed seven match points to finish off the American. In the end, she got the job done and the wins should be invaluable for her confidence going forward.
In the head-to-head, Sharapova leads 9-4 over Ivanovic. The pair split their matches in 2014 with Ivanovic prevailing in Rome (6-1 6-4) and Cincy (6-2 5-7 7-5) and Sharapova winning in Stuttgart (3-6 6-4 6-1) and Beijing (6-0 6-4). Their match in Cincy was the most dramatic of the lot with Ivanovic coming away with one of, if not, the best win of her year. However she was flat for their most recent match that took place at the end of 2014 in China.
As both players bid to win their first ever title in Brisbane, i’m going for Maria to prevail in a reasonably straightforward match.
Prediction: Sharapova d. Ivanovic in 2 sets
WTA Shenzhen Final Prediction
Simona Halep d. Timea Bacsinszky in 2 tight sets
Moo's Tennis Blog 
This title belongs to Sugarpova. Anna isn’t playing great/good tennis to even take a set from Maria. For Anna to even have a little chance at win, she needs to regain her form from last year.
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#CmonMasha I would be shocked if she loses given the way she has been playing this whole week. 2 entertaining tiebreaks would be the max, nothing worse than that 😉
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I don’t think Sharapova has been as great as people claim…she’s just had very little in the way of resistance.
I think either Ana will come out fatigued and leaking errors OR it will be a long, drawn out one. So far Sharapova has had no pressure on her service so she’s kept the double faults down. Ivanovic is one of the best returners in the game and she WILL apply pressure there. She’s also more capable of hitting her around the court. Once Maria gets her footwork in a tangle she starts throwing in the errors. Not to mention that Ivanovic clearly has more shots at her disposal and her forehand is the biggest weapon either possess.
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Sharapova is playing great for the players that are in her field, but Anna is playing worst than her. Of course if Serena, Petra, Halep and the rest of the top ten were in the tournament it would of been a different story. She had no real competition in the field of players she played ranking 18th and below.
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I’m not expecting Ana to win, purely because she’s clearly tired (her own fault for playing through the off season), but she’s by far the better player in every aspect except mental toughness.
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Can’t wait for these!
Sharapova in 2.
Nishikori in 2 (risky!)
Federer in 3
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I don’t think Nishikori in 2 is risky at all, I’m in full agreement. I’d probably say Fed in 2 too.
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I said it’d be close…
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