Halep – Radwanska

Simona Halep and Agnieszka Radwanska square off in the last round robin match of the Red Group in the Singapore WTA finals. The Romanian has 1 win and 1 loss so far, while Radwanska lost both of her matches.

Simona Halep will qualify with a victory, unless she loses a set and Pennetta beats Sharapova 2-0. Halep will also proceed to qualify with a loss in 3 sets if Sharapova beats Pennetta. If Simona Halep loses 2-0, she is out.

Radwanska lost both games so far and her only chance of qualifying is if she wins this match in 2 sets, while also needing Sharapova to defeat Penetta in straight. Radwanska lost against Sharapova in three sets, winning the first due to the Russian playing rather poor and losing the next two when Sharapova raised her level. Agnieszka also lost 6-7 4-6 to Pennetta, a player that was coming after a 0-6 3-6 loss to Halep.

The Romanian entered Singapore with some very poor form, but it was mostly due to an injury which she tried to manage in order to be ready for these finals. And it seemed to pay off – Halep was superb in her 6-0 6-3 win over Pennetta and had high hopes from the match against Sharapova, but ended up losing 6-4 6-4. The matchup was too much for Halep to overcome, as she doesn`t know how to play the Russian, trailing 0-6 in the H2H. The only positive is that she came back from 5-1 in the second set, though she still lost it.

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I`m starting to have the impression that Radwanska just can`t cut it at this level anymore. Watching her play against most of these top players, her lack of power and physicality is almost embarrassing at times. Even on a good day, the Polish player regularly gets beaten by the very top players in the women`s game. The scenario is usually similar, with Radwanska taking a set and playing well, then her opponent finds her game and simply out-powers Agnieszka – it happened this week against Sharapova, it happened against Muguruza lately and overall it happened a lot of times this season. She has a 1-7 record against Top 10 players in 2015, her biggest win was against Kerber, when she was ranked 10th.

The Head 2 Head is tied at 4-4 (3-3 on hard), but Halep won the last two meetings, both of them played on hard courts. One of those two meetings was actually played here at the WTA finals in Singapore last year and Halep won 6-2 6-2.

I am not to worried by Halep’s loss against Sharapova. She could have played better, but the loss was mostly due to the matchup disadvantage. This will not be the case against Radwanska. I can`t see Agnieszka beating top players right now (1-7 vs. Top 10), particularly not indoor, even if the surface is not so fast in Singapore. The Polish player had a good winning record prior to this tournament, but she struggles against the best players and she did not play too well in Singapore. Her loss against Pennetta, who was demolished by Halep, was particularly worrying – even if no match is similar to the other.

There`s also the fact that this will be the first match of the day, so the players won`t know the result of Pennetta – Sharapova. In this case, if Halep wins any of the first two sets, Radwanska will have no more motivation, being already knocked out – but Simona Halep would still need to win the match.

All in all, Halep is the better player, playing better tennis this week and it could also come down to her having more motivation. I`m also struggling to see Radwanska beating a Top 5 player, she didn`t do it the whole season and the current circumstances make it seem even more unlikely that she could do it now. With all these factors in mind, my tip is Halep to win. Prediction: Simona Halep – Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5 6-3.

Pick: Halep
Odds: 1.66 @ Betsafe
Stake: 10
Possible profit: 6.60
Event date: 29 October