It seems rather fitting that we get another match-up between Andrea Petkovic and Carla Suarez Navarro after what happened in Antwerp last month (see original preview HERE).  Last month, Carla was forced to withdraw before the Antwerp final due to a neck injury.  Carla’s year just keeps on getting better and better, and she has put herself within touching distance of cracking the top ten for the first time in her career.  The Spaniard  has now won more three set matches in 2015 than she amassed during the whole of 2014 (12-3 record in 2015 so far compared to 11-12 in 2014).  This was after Carla defeated Venus Williams in the quarter-finals with a wacky WTA scoreline, 0-6 6-1 7-5.  The Spaniard was a break down in the deciding set, but held her nerve to claim a third victory over Venus and now lead their respective head-to-head.

Suarez Navarro’s run hasn’t been an upset when you consider her results heading into Miami, but Petkovic is a more surprising addition to the last four line-up.  Petkovic lost her first match of Indian Wells to Lesia Tsurenko.  She’s had some good results this year, notably winning Antwerp; however, in her eight tournaments this year, she has lost her first match in five of them.  Without doubt, Petkovic has played her best tennis of 2015 in Miami.  Her most encouraging performance came against Ekaterina Makarova in the fourth round where she produced a superb and relentless performance to take out the world number 9 in straight sets.

In the quarters, Petkovic defeated Karolina Pliskova, 6-4 6-2.  Petkovic started the match well, going up a break twice and eventually consolidating to 4-1.  Pliskova was very impatient early on and struggled to get her serve going.  She rallied back to 4-4 and seemed to be in the ascendancy as she conjured up two break points on the Petkovic serve at 15-40.  Petkovic would go onto hold after Pliskova missed some makeable backhand returns, and then broke to love as Pliskova endured a horror game serving to stay in the set with a game of unforced errors.  Pliskova’s fight seemed to evade her in the second set as she barely hit another return into the court.  Petkovic won 89% of service points in the second set, which came as a surprise considering how well Pliskova returned in her last match against Daria Gavrilova.  Petkovic remained composed even after Pliskova won two service games from break point down and was fully deserving of the win.

Petkovic and Suarez Navarro are tied at 2-2 in the head-to-head; Carla won their most recent match in Sofia at the Tournament of Champions event at the end of 2014.  It’s an even head-to-head although all four of their previous matches have been decided in straight sets.  I’m completely on the fence with this match and I really do mean that.  I’m going for Carla to prevail as I feel that her confidence right now will be sky high.  She will also offer something different to Petkovic’s most recent opponents, who have all struggled for consistency.

Prediction: Suarez Navarro d. Petkovic in 3 sets

Poll results: 32% of readers correctly predicted that Suarez Navarro would beat V.Williams and 36% correctly predicted that Petkovic would beat Pliskova

Photo in this post by Jimmie48 Tennis Photography