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Match details
Fixture: (9) Karolina Pliskova vs Petra Martic
Date: 15 May 2021
Tournament: Internazionali BNL d'italia 2021
Round: Semifinals
Venue: Rome, Italy
Category: WTA 1000
Surface: Red clay
Prize money: $1,835,490
Match timing: Not before 12 pm local time, 10 am GMT, 6 am EST
Live telecast: USA - Tennis Channel | UK - Amazon Prime Video
Karolina Pliskova vs Petra Martic preview
Ninth seed Karolina Pliskova will look to reach the Rome final for the third consecutive year when she takes on World No. 25 Petra Martic in the semifinals of the 2021 edition on Saturday.
It has been an underwhelming season for Pliskova so far. Prior to arriving at Rome, the former World No. 1 had made the quarters just twice - at Doha and Stuttgart.
But things have changed this week at the Italian Open, a tournament where Pliskova won the title in 2019 and finished as the runner-up last year. The Czech is now into the semifinals of a tournament for the first time in 2021.
It hasn't come easily though. Pliskova had to save three match points against 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in a marathon quarterfinal on Friday, which she won 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(1).
Up next for Pliskova is the inspired Petra Martic, who will be playing the biggest WTA semifinal of her career on Saturday.
Teaming up with former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone at the start of the clay season has worked wonders for Martic. The 2019 Roland Garros quarterfinalist had won just four matches all year before coming to Rome, but she has added another four wins this week - including one over last year's Roland Garros semifinalist Nadia Podoroska.
Martic will now be fancying her chances against Pliskova, who is not one of the best movers on this surface.
Karolina Pliskova vs Petra Martic head-to-head
Petra Martic leads Karolina Pliskova 4-2 in their head-to-head, and has won both their meetings on clay.
Their last showdown on the red dirt was at Roland Garros a couple of years ago, where Martic emerged a 6-3, 6-3 winner.
Karolina Pliskova vs Petra Martic prediction
Karolina Pliskova's game is based around her booming serve. She needs to get her serve going for all the other elements to work, and that wasn't quite the case in her quarterfinal against Jelena Ostapenko.
Despite serving nine aces, the Czech undid her good work by also spraying 13 double faults. The accuracy on her groundstrokes was lacking as well, as she repeatedly kept missing the lines in a match where both women struggled to keep the ball in the court.
Needless to say, the former Rome champion needs to produce a much better performance against Petra Martic, who has traditionally proved to be a tough opponent for her.
Martic did have some serving issues of her own against Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals, as she got broken numerous times. But Martic's overall ground game on clay is smoother than that of Pliskova's, and that gives the Croat an edge.
Martic can slide very well on the surface, and can also come forward to finish points at the net. Her occasional slice-and-dropshot combination has proved effective against aggressive baseliners in the past, and she won't hesitate to use that strategy against Pliskova to eke out errors from her racket.
Prediction: Petra Martic to win in three sets.
