Maria Sakkari vs Irina-Camelia Begu Odds & Prediction

Sakkari Sends Last Spaniard Packing

Sakkari doesn’t figure to be a fan favorite following her performance in the Round of 16. She downed Paula Badosa in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, thus sending the last Spanish player in the tournament packing.

In the Madrid Round of 16 for the second successive year, the Greek player was 2-for-3 on break points, while Badosa went 0-for-3. Sakkari hit five aces and committed one double-fault, compared to the five double faults of her Spanish opponent.

Ninth-seeded Sakkari displayed a 78-55% edge in second service points and an a 21-16 advantage in receiving points won.

Begu At Her Best On Clay

Veteran Begu, 32, the No. 31 seed, maintained control throughout in her Round of 16 match against Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova. World #35 Begu held a 79-60% edge in first service points. The Romanian won for of six break points and held a 3-0 verdict in aces.

Sakkari vs Begu Match History

Begu has yet to drop a set in Madrid. She bettered unseeded Karolina Muchova (6-4, 7-5) and #33 seed Shelby Rogers (7-5, 6-2) prior to her dispatching of 14th-seeded Samsonova. However, the veteran player has never won a WTA Masters event. She was just 7-7 on the season coming into Madrid.

Sakkari will be making her 10th quarterfinal appearance in a WTA clay-court tournament, but her first-ever at Madrid.  Begu’s two most recent WTA tourney titles – last year in Palermo and 2017 in Bucharest – came on clay-court surfaces.

Begu is a player who seeks to capitalize on the miscues of her opponent, so as long as her Greek opponent stays on top of her game, chances are she’ll be the one coming out ahead in this match.

Sakkari vs Begu Head-to-Head

Sakkari vs Begu Prediction

Each of these players are displaying solid performance records of late on clay-court surfaces. Sakkari is 7-2 in her last nine matches on the surface. Begu has won 25 out of 31 on clay, including a 22-5 slate last year.

However, all three prior meetings between the two players came on hard courts. The Romanian has dropped the last two encounters, but both were requiring three sets to determine a winner

Both players have gone over 18.5 games in each of their last eight matches so we’ll back the over in our Sakkari vs Begu prediction.

Sakkari vs Begu Pick: Sakkari (-155); Sakkari 2-1 (+280)