Cori “Kiki” Gauff (USA) vs. Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) – Score prediction (13.10.2019)

Overview.

Cori “Kiki” Gauff hopes to be the third-ever player to win a title on tour as the lucky loser, following 1980 Las Vegas champion Andrea Jaeger and 2018 Moscow River Cup champion Olga Danilovic. No Latvian has entered singles final at Linz before, while Lindsay Davenport (2000-01) is the last American to triumph at the regional capital.

Jelena Ostapenko survived three match points — one on return in the second set, two on serve in the third — along with several other close shaves to inflict a heartbreaker on 2018 runner-up Ekaterina Alexandrova. She needed two hours and 21 minutes to rally 1-6, 7-6, 7-5, and extend her resurgence run. Ostapenko enters the week having not won more than two matches in a row since the 2018 Wimbledon semifinal finishes to Angelique Kerber and with a 17-27 win-loss in the season. She got the former out of the way by beating qualifier Korpatsch, Cornet (via ret), and Nanchang finalist Rybakina without a set loss. Ostapenko, who is on her third campaign at Upper Austria (2015-16), is 2-4 in career finals, beating Simona Halep at the 2017 Roland Garros and Beatrix Haddad Maia in Seoul later that year. Her latest final appearance came at Miami Open in March 2018 when she fell to American Sloane Stephens, 7-6, 6-1.

Cori Gauff is enjoying another week of firsts as eases past Andrea Petkovic, who was playing her third Linz semifinal, 6-4, 6-4, to enter the title round of the indoor tournament. The American, who fell to Tamara Korpatsch in the qualifyings, has dropped just one set in the main draw, to Kozlova in the second round. Gauff rose to fame with her fourth-round run at Wimbledon a few months ago. Playing as a 313th-ranked qualifier, the 15-year-old knocked out Venus Williams and saved match points against Polona Hercog en route. She was the youngest player to win a main draw match at SW19 since Jennifer Capriati in 1991. During her stay at Linz, Gauff has secured a maiden top 40 win against top seed and world no. 8 Kiki Bertens in close straight sets, 7-6, 6-4, along with confirming her top 100 debut — will rise to lower 70s with the title. She bids to be the youngest WTA titleholder since Nicole Vaidisova’s triumph at 2004 Tashkent.

Match Info.

Competition: WTA – SINGLES: Linz (Austria), hard (indoor) – Final
Start: 13.10.2019, 12:00 UTC.