PETE ZIEBRON
Camila Giorgi in action. Pete Ziebron Images
First time matchups are intriguing, especially when they occur deep in a tournament. The WTA quarterfinals in both Moscow and Tenerife have four in total and here we will look at two in particular. The Kremlin Cup features third seed Maria Sakkari of Greece and the number eight seed Simona Halep of Romania. Sakkari reached the semifinals of both Roland Garros and the US Open this year, while Halep has won both the French and US Open in the last three years. Halep is a former world number one while Sakkari is currently at her career high of number seven. The Greek is 4-0 against top five WTA players this year, has seven top-ten wins in 2021 as well as eleven versus the top-twenty. However, she has just one career title, won two years ago in Morocco against Brit Jo Konta. The winner will play either number one seed Aryna Sabalenka or Ekaterina Alexandrova.
In Spain, Camila Giorgi of Italy is the lone seed left in the draw and will face Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. Giorgi won the biggest title of her career earlier this year in Montreal, however then proceeded to lose four matches in a row before getting back on track in Tenerife. Rus is a former Junior Australian Open Champion as well as the #1 Junior in the world. Despite 27 titles on the ITF Circuit, Rus has yet to win one on the WTA Tour. The Dutch is currently at her career high of world #61. The winner will face either Maria Camila Osorio Serrano of Colombia or Saisai Zheng of China.
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