Date/Time: Saturday 2nd February 2019 (Kick-off 1:30 PM CET).
It is very good to see Vera Zvonareva back on the court and playing some strong tennis as she made her way through to the Semi Final in front of her home fans. Injuries have really blighted the latter stages of her career, but the Russian clearly still loves playing tennis and all three wins earned to reach the Semi Final have been impressive.
The veteran is back inside the top 100 of the World Rankings and has dropped a single set to Julia Goerges on her way through the draw, but she is going to be challenged by Donna Vekic in this one.
The 22 year old Vekic has begun to show a little more consistency in her matches and this is a very good chance to reach the Final. A win over Australian Open Finalist Petra Kvitova in the Quarter Final was a very good result for Vekic and she has won six sets in a row since dropping the first one in St Petersburg.
Donna Vekic has been serving very well to get into a position to progress to the Semi Final and it has to be noted that Zvonareva's return has not been as strong as she would have liked. It has been enough to get through this draw so far, but the Vekic serve might be another challenge to what she has faced so far and I can see that putting pressure on the Russian to make sure she is producing her best off her own serve.
The indoor hard courts makes it much easier for servers though and Zvonareva has got a decent pop out of her own on this surface too. However Vekic has been getting enough out of her return to give Zvonareva something to think about and the Croatian has been creating enough break point chances against players this week to think she can do the same here.
Home fans will keep Zvonareva competitive, but Vekic may just have a little too much in each set they play and that could be enough to win and cover.
Prediction: Donna Vekic - 3.5 games
T&Cs apply.
