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2017 Australian Open Women's singles, quarter-finals Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Park Karolina Pliskova vs Mirjana Lucic-Baroni |
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Surprise packet Mirjana Lucic-Baroni will seek to cause an upset against world no.5 Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 11.00am (AEDT).
Lucic-Baroni arrived at the Australian Open having not reached the final eight of a Grand Slam since 1999.
She started 2017 in Auckland and Sydney, but couldn’t get past the second round of either tournament. However, her Australian Open campaign has brought more success, the veteran putting together four consecutive convincing wins – one of those coming over the world no.3 and last year’s semi-finalist in Agnieszka Radwanska.
In her most recent match against Jennifer Brady, Lucic-Baroni belted a whopping 35 winners on her way to a comfortable straight sets win.
Lucic-Baroni is riding a wave of confidence , and her No.79 ranking does very little to reflect the quality of tennis she has produced over the past week. Having said that, this is certain to be the biggest challenge she has faced so far.
Pliskova ended three of her four matches in straight sets, with the other featuring an incredibly gritty comeback to snatch victory over talented youngster Jelena Ostapenko.
The fast surface suits Pliskova’s ball-bashing game style, and to prove it, look no further than her average 31 winners per match. Pliskova will be wary of the danger that Lucic-Baroni poses and will seek to reproduce the offensive production that has brought her this far.
These two have met each other five times in the past. Pliskova holds a 3-2 lead overall and a 2-1 lead in their hard court encounters. She has also won their most recent match which was back in 2015.
Don’t let the ranking disparity fool you – this will be a great match. Pliskova will definitely need to produce something near her best to win, and if she does, she will definitely win.
Simply, Lucic-Baroni’s best is well below Pliskova’s best. Although the Croat has done well to get this far, she has not faced a player of Pliskova’s calibre yet. Sure, she beat Radwanska, who is crafty, skillful and clever, but she does not have the enormous striking power that Pliskova has.
Prediction
This match will have plenty in it early on as both players try to get the measure of each other. Lucic-Baroni needs to play smartly to defeat Pliskova – if she enters a baseline battle (as she has done with every opponent thus far), she is almost certain to lose. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a set get taken off Pliskova, but she should win.
Pliskova in three sets.
Join The Roar for live coverage of this quarter-final from 11am (AEDT).
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