Karolina Pliskova vs Marketa Vondrousova: Rome Masters Preview and Prediction

Second seed Karolina Pliskova locks horns against 12th seed Marketa Vondrousova in the semifinals of the Rome Masters tonight. 

Pliskova had to dig deep to defeat 11th seed Elise Mertens in the quarterfinals. After the first two sets were split between each other, 6-3 6-3, Pliskova romped home to victory with a 6-0 drubbing in the third set.

On the other hand, Vondrousova stunned the 4th seed, Elina Svitolina 6-3 6-0 in the quarterfinals. The two-time Italian Open champion put up a sloppy performance as her service games were highly inconsistent. 

Head to Head record 

Pliskova leads the head to head record 1-0 against Vondrousova. This is their first meeting on the clay surface. Being the defending champion, Pliskova has shown enormous consistency with her supreme groundstrokes doing the damage. 

Vondrousova loves playing on the red dirt and has found tight angles along with varied shot selection to trouble her opponents. Pliskova would be pleased with her serve as it has helped her take control of the majority of the rallies. On an eight-match winning streak at the Italian Open, she is the woman to beat. 

“She's a strong opponent, especially on clay, she can play quite ugly game on clay, it's semifinals, still kind of preparation for Paris, if I play like today I think I should not be worried," said Pliskova sounding optimistic of her chances ahead of the showdown. 

"Karolina is playing amazing here, she won it last year so I think she feels really well here," said Vondrousova praising her opponent. 

While Pliskova will rely on first-strike tennis and an attacking game to stop Vondrousova, her compatriot can introduce deft changes in the game to slow down Pliskova. If Pliskova keeps her unforced errors at bay, she could have too much power for Vondrousova. Vondrosouva's confidence will be high after thrashing Svitolina and Pliskova should not take her lightly despite being the favourite. 

Prediction - Karolina Pliskova to win in three sets 

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