Deservingly, two of the best players in the Open de Limoges have made it to the final and will face each other on Saturday.
Anhelina Kalinina
The Ukrainian star has played superbly in the last couple of months. She made it to the semifinals in the ITF event in Shrewsbury and the WTA 125 event in Angers that followed. In Shrewsbury, she lost to fifth seed Marketa Vondrousova while in Angers, she faced defeat against the experienced Anna-Lena Friedsam.
Kalinina, who is 25 years, did not have a great start to the season. She won only four matches in the five tournaments she played in at the beginning of the season. At the Charleston Open, Kalinina made it to the quarterfinals but lost to fourth seed Ons Jabeur. At the Madrid Open, Kalinina played well and reached the quarterfinals, where she lost to Jil Teichmann. During the tournament, she defeated former Grand Slam champions Garbine Muguruza and Emma Raducanu. Kalinina made the quarterfinals at Eastbourne International as well. After being ousted in Wimbledon in the second round, the talented Ukrainian lost six matches on the trot. In October, she made it to the quarterfinals but lost to Anna Blinkova in three sets. She played in an ITF event in Spain where she crashed out in the first round before entering the ITF event in Shrewsbury.
Kalinina played her first match in Limoges against Carole Monnet in the round of 32. The Frenchwoman toiled hard in the first set but Kalinina edged it in the end. The second set saw Kalinina dominate her opponent and hand her a bagel. The match ended 6-4, 6-0 in favor of Kalinina. In the round of 16, Kalinina faced another Frenchwoman Jenny Lim, who progressed from the qualifiers. The match was a one-sided affair as Kalinina bageled Lim in two consecutive sets to win the match 6-0, 6-0. The domination continued in the quarterfinals as the fifth-seeded Kalinina defeated top seed Zhang Shuai in straight sets 6-3, 6-1. Kalinina faced Anna Blinkova in the semis. The Russian youngster had an exemplary 5-0 head-to-head record against Kalinina going into the match. However, Kalinina’s blistering form helped her to register her first win against Blinkova 7-5, 6-4.
Clara Tauson
The 19-year-old has been in scintillating form as of late. Her dream run of form began at the ITF event in France in October when she made it to the semis. In another ITF tournament in France in November, Tauson made it to the quarterfinals. She won the ITF tournament that followed in Italy. At the WTA Angers Arena Loire Open, Kalinina was the one who defeated Tauson in the quarterfinals.
Over the course of the year, Tauson managed to reach seven quarterfinals. She had a great start to the season as she made it to the quarterfinals at the Gippsland Trophy. Tauson produced her best result at a Grand Slam by reaching the third round in the Australian Open. The Danish star produced a couple of huge upsets at the Qatar Open and BNP Paribas Open. In Qatar, she ousted Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic while at the BNP Paribas, Tauson got the better of Beatriz Haddad Maia. At the Thoreau Tennis Open, she was the top seed. Her journey ended in the quarterfinals.
The talented youngster opened her campaign with a closely-contested encounter against Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets 7-5, 7-6 (7-3). Tauson won another humdinger against Marta Kostyuk in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals, Tauson came back from a set down to defeat Russian talent Varvara Gracheva 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Tauson defeated sixth seed Lucia Bronzetti in straight sets in the semis in another evenly-contested encounter that ended 6-3, 7-5. With this win, Tauson returned back to the top 100 in the WTA rankings.
Head-to-Head and Prediction
The head-to-head scoreline is intriguingly poised at 1-1. Both matches took place this year. Tauson won the first encounter at the Gippsland Trophy in the round of 32 while Kalinina avenged that defeat in the WTA Angers Arena Loire Open.
Prediction: Anhelina Kalinina to win in three sets.
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